Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a condition characterized by liver fat accumulation and metabolic abnormalities. Given the potential impact of MAFLD on patient health, it is important to understand its association with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) such as myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. In the prospective UK Biobank cohort, we sought to elucidate the association of MAFLD and its subtypes with incident MI and stroke. In this study, we analyzed the data of 325,129 participants in the UK Biobank and calculated relative risks for MI and stroke using Cox regression analysis. Among 325,129 participants over a median duration of 12.8 years follow-up, participants with MAFLD were significantly more likely to experience a MI (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.35, 95% confidence interval [CI: 1.29;1.41] P < 0.001) or a stroke (HR = 1.26 [1.18–1.33] P < 0.001) compared to those without MAFLD. In addition, diabetic, overweight with metabolic dysfunction (MD), and lean MAFLD subtypes were significantly associated with an increased risk for MI and stroke, whereas overweight without MD subtype did not appear to be associated with this risk. Our findings also revealed graded associations between liver fibrosis scores and risk of MI and stroke in MAFLD patients. However, only diabetic, and overweight patients with MD subtypes exhibited graded associations between liver fibrosis score and the risk of MI and stroke among the MAFLD subtypes. Furthermore, the risk alleles traits of fatty liver did not enhance the effect of MAFLD on the risk of MI and stroke. In conclusion, a diagnosis of MAFLD is associated with an increased risk of MI or stroke, and the assessment of MAFLD and its subtypes should be a component of the cardiovascular risk assessment.