<span>Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) are widely utilized in wireless systems and maximum data rate communications. The MIMO-OFDM technology increases the efficiency of spectrum utilization. The peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) minimization in MIMO-OFDM is a complex task in wireless communications systems. In this research, an adaptive tunicate swarm optimization with partial transmit sequence (ATSO-PTS) algorithm is proposed for a reduction of PAPR in MIMO-OFDM. The nonsquare-matrix-based differential space time coding (N-DSTC) scheme is used for the encoding and decoding process of MIMO-OFDM. The N-DSTC encoding and decoding are linear error-correcting codes that are utilized for message transmission over noisy channels. The pre-specified quadrate phase shift keying (QPSK) symbol is deployed for the modulation and demodulation scheme. On the receiver side, the serial to parallel (S/P) conversion, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) are accomplished, alongside the received data bits being demodulated to obtain the output bits. The proposed ATSO-PTS method achieves better results according to performance metrices PAPR, bit error rate (BER) and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), with values of about 2.9, 0.01 and 0.025, respectively. This ensures superior results when compared to the existing methods of twin symbol hybrid optimization applied to partial transmit sequence (TSHO-PTS), selective level mapping and PTS (SLM-PTS), and particle swarm and grey wolf (PS-GW) with PTS, respectively.</span>