Peaty, 19, ensured Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa had to settle for silver in the men's 100 metre breaststroke final, as he clocked 58.94 seconds to win in a new Games record.
But the day belonged to Australia, who went top of the medal table ahead of England with a superb haul of eight in the pool, three of them gold.
The evening session at the Tollcross Swimming Centre in Glasgow had begun with South African Chad le Clos showing his class to smash the Commonwealth record on his way to winning the 200m butterfly, with Australia's Grant Irvine taking silver ahead of another South African, Sebastian Rousseau.
But from there it was the Australians who took over, with only Peaty and Englishwoman Fran Halsall - winner of the women's 50m freestyle - able to break their dominance.
After sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell had finished just behind Halsall, Daniel Fox began the Australian gold rush when he touched first in the men's para-swimming 200m S14 freestyle final, before Taylor McKeown followed suit in the women's 200m breaststroke event, pushing team-mate Sally Hunter into silver.
Emily Seebohm was the next to climb to the top step of the podium with a Games record swim of 59.37secs in the women's 100m backstroke final, with countrywoman Belinda Hocking edged out by Georgia Davies of Wales in the battle for silver and bronze.
Australia then rounded off the action in the pool by winning gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay to ensure they replaced England at the top of the medal standings, with both nations having 17 golds but Australia amassing more medals in total.
Earlier, England's triathletes had taken centre stage, as they won the mixed team relay to complete a clean sweep of gold medals in the sport at these Games.
All four of England's team contained medalists from the individual events, with Alistair Brownlee and Jodie Stimpson claiming their second golds in Glasgow.
With the help of Jonathan Brownlee and Vicky Holland, the world champions finished 49 seconds ahead of South Africa, who just edged Australia out of the silver medal in the home straight.
Australia also savoured another memorable day at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome,with Annette Edmonson and Scott Sutherland taking gold in the women's 10 kilometre scratch race and men's 1000m time trial respectively, while Thomas Scully won gold for New Zealand in the 40km points race.
Neil Fachie and Craig MacLean sparked jubilant celebrations among the Scottish fans when they won the men's sprint B2 tandem gold for the host nation.
In gymnastics, Canada's Patricia Bezzoubenko took her personal gold tally to five with victories in the individual hoop, ball and clubs finals, but she had to settle for bronze in the ribbon as Francesca Jones claimed a first gold of the event for Wales.
Scotland's flag bearer, Euan Burton, was a popular gold-medal winner in the under 100 kilogramme judo final, while Sarah Adlington also claimed a judo gold for the hosts in the over 78kg final and there was also success for South Africans Zack Piontek and Ruan Snyman, as well as Wales' Natalie Powell
Daniel Repacholi of Australia went better than his bronze medal from 2010 with gold in the men's 10m air pistol shooting final, while skeet silver medalist in Delhi, Georgios Achilleos, claimed gold this time around for Cyprus.
India dominated proceedings in the women's 10m air rifle, with Apurvi Chandela's score of 206.7 points seeing her take gold from compatriot Ayonika Paul and Rahi Sarnobat later claiming gold for India in the women's 25m pistol at the expense of fellow Indian Anisa Sayyed.
There was gold for South Africa in the lawn bowls mixed pairs B2/B3 after a 14-10 win over Scotland, while Australia claimed bronze after beating New Zealand.
New Zealand began their defence of the rugby sevens crown with wins over Canada and Scotland, and their hockey team recorded a convincing 8-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago in the preliminary round.
The pool matches in the netball competition saw Australia beat England 49-48 in a tense encounter, while England's Zoe Smith took weightlifting gold in the women's 58kg class and Mohd Hafifi Mansor did likewise for Malaysia in the men's 69kg division.