The album features guest vocals from Frank Ocean, Drake, Swae Lee, Kid Cudi, James Blake, Philip Bailey, Juice Wrld, Sheck Wes, the Weeknd, 21 Savage, Gunna, Nav, Don Toliver, Quavo, and Takeoff, among others.

Production was handled by multiple producers, including Scott himself, Mike Dean, Allen Ritter, Hit-Boy, WondaGurl, Tay Keith, Tame Impala, Frank Dukes, Sonny Digital, Murda Beatz, and Thundercat, among others.

The album title is named after the defunct theme park Six Flags AstroWorld, which was located in Houston, Texas prior to its closure.

Astroworld received critical acclaim and performed well commercially, debuting atop the US Billboard 200 with 537,000 album-equivalent units, of which 270,000 were pure sales.

[6] The album title is named after the defunct theme park Six Flags AstroWorld, which was located in Houston, Texas prior to its closure in 2005.

[9][10][11] In July 2018, it was reported that Scott was completing the album in Hawaii with a variety of recording artists and producers, such as Mike Dean, Nav, Frank Dukes, Sonny Digital, WondaGurl, Sheck Wes, Gunna, Wheezy, Don Toliver, Allen Ritter and Amir "Cash" Esmailian.

[2][1][15][16] "Stargazing" has been described as a "psychedelic trap" song,[17] while "Coffee Bean" is said to inhabit "old school hip hop territory with a blissed-out funk guitar".

[19][20] On August 1, 2018, transgender model Amanda Lepore, who is a known collaborator with LaChapelle, questioned why she had been excluded on the final version of the second cover.

[23] In September 2018, TMZ reported that featured artist Frank Ocean filed a cease and desist against Scott to have his verse on "Carousel" removed due to disagreements over the song's sound.

[28] On July 27, 2018, a giant sculpture of Scott's head appeared on top of an Amoeba Music store in Los Angeles.

[31][32] After significant internet speculation, the release date for Astroworld was announced on July 30, 2018, through social media, alongside an album trailer, which featured the track "Stargazing".

Bassett concluded: "This is the sound of a musician who has worked to forge an entire world, an empire, around himself – we can peer in, but from afar, guessing at his motives and life behind the velvet rope.

[47] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described Astroworld as "a futuristic record with virtually flawless production, that lingers on the mind long after the final track" and labelled it Scott's "most career-defining work to date".

[15] Thomas Hobbs of Highsnobiety stated that Astroworld "will be remembered as the moment Travis Scott produced a piece of music worthy of the riots he is capable of inducing.

[52] Grant Rindner of The Line of Best Fit saying "Scott could have easily made another distorted, debaucherous project like his previous two albums, but by emphasizing his vocal performances and finding the best middle ground he ever has with his bevy of superstar collaborators, he's made Astroworld a theme park worth revisiting whether you came in as a stan or a skeptic".

[53] Larry Fitzmaurice of Pitchfork labelled Astroworld as Scott's strongest album to date, stating that "his skill as a curator helps sculpt a sticky, humid, psychedelic world with dazzling production and odd pleasures at every turn", although considered Scott to "play ringmaster to his neon-decayed circus of sound rather than become the main attraction".

[1] Andrew Barker of Variety said, "At 17 tracks, Astroworld is not without filler—the 21 Savage feature "NC-17" is tiresomely sophomoric, while "Can't Say" and "Houstonfornication" never really take shape—but rarely does the album feel lazy or uninspired".

[74] Following the release, all 17 tracks on the album entered the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Sicko Mode" (at 4) and "Stargazing" (8), which made Scott the fourth act to have debuted multiple songs in the chart's top 10 simultaneously.

[77] On December 3, 2018, Astroworld returned to the number-one spot on the Billboard 200, earning 71,000 album-equivalent units, almost four months after its initial release.