The duo wrote the song with the help of its producers Detail, Andre Eric Proctor, Rasool Diaz, Brian Soko, Timbaland, J-Roc and Boots.

It peaked atop the music chart of South Africa and reached the top ten in France, Ireland, Lebanon, New Zealand, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

[1][13] Musically, the song consists of bass,[16] skittering drums,[17] vague synthesizers, scintillating strings,[18] finger snaps[19] and a substantial amount of trap beats.

[27] As she sings about how much she likes sex with her partner,[31] Beyoncé uses several double entendres,[29][32] including the line, "grainin' on that wood", where she is supposedly referencing a surfboard.

[40] He forgoes subtlety as he raps, "Foreplay in a foyer, fucked up my Warhol/ Slid the panties right to the side/ Ain't got the time to take drawers off on sight... your breasteses is my breakfast".

[25] Andrew Hampp of Billboard called the track a "potential smash" as he praised its appeal to R&B radio stations and its "infectious, wailing of 'loooove' on the chorus".

[27] Andrew Barker from Variety wrote in his review of Beyoncé, "a radio-ready pop single [is] buried somewhere within the Jay Z feature 'Drunk In Love,' yet Beyonce and Boots embellish it with enough strange grace notes and recitatives to create a much stranger monster than one might expect".

"[26] Nick Catucci of Entertainment Weekly termed Beyoncé's rap as "truculent" and noted that "Drunk in Love" is one of the few songs of the album that displays scale-busting.

[24] Chris Kelly of FACT magazine dubbed the song as the "requisite duet with Jay Z (whose Ike Turner-referencing verse caps off a year of cringeworthy efforts)".

[49] Pitchfork Media's Carrie Battan felt that the lines in which Beyoncé ad-libbed "surfboard" were "some of the most infectious snippets of pop music in 2013", elaborating "the single word serving as both shorthand for woman-on-top and a neat summation of an entire era of trends in rap cadence".

[52] Anupa Mistry of Spin considered the song to be one of Beyoncé's "elbows-up boom-trap anthems... ready to soundtrack both dive-bar antics and bottle-service quasi-sophistication.

[54] Philadelphia Media Network writer Dan DeLuca panned "Drunk in Love" as Beyoncé's biggest "misstep" due to Jay-Z's contribution.

The magazine's writers described it as a "future-pop fantasy" and "the sexiest thing on the radio", further praising the singers for making "marriage sound ridiculously hot".

[65] At the 2014 BET Awards, it won Best Collaboration and was nominated for Viewer's Choice, losing to "I Luv This Shit" by August Alsina and Trinidad James.

[77] The song spent eight consecutive weeks in the top ten and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in April.

[86] "Drunk in Love" was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 14, 2022, for sales and streams of 1,200,000 units in the UK,[87][88] making it Beyoncé's fifth best selling song in the region and her biggest seller of the decade.

[95] For the week ending December 21, 2013, "Drunk in Love" debuted at its peak position of number 25 on the South Korea Gaon International Chart with digital sales of 5,608 copies.

[101] Talking about the video in an iTunes Radio session, Beyoncé said, "The shoot was extremely effortless and spontaneous and we completely captured the energy of the song.

Nearly a minute later, Beyoncé appears; she is strolling on a beach at night and she seemingly carries a massive trophy while an eerie music is playing in the background.

[100] USA Today's Elysa Gardner felt that the clip was "sultry" showing the pair "romp and caress on a beach, recalling a night of connubial bliss that lasted into morning" as the song's lyrics.

[109] HitFix reviewer Whitney Phaneuf felt that Beyoncé was looking in the camera with pure lust concluding that when Jay-Z appears later, "it's clear that her gaze has been fixed on him".

[118] Nadeska Alexis writing for MTV News noted that when the singer started singing the first verses of the song, "you could almost taste the aroma of sex appeal in the air".

[131] At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on August 25, 2014, Beyoncé performed "Drunk in Love" live during a medley consisting of songs from her self-titled album.

[132] The song was added to the set list and performed live during the second European leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in February and March 2014.

[137] Kitty Empire of The Observer wrote that the singer's ad libs made listeners feel like she "got tipsy and had the hots for her husband".

[151] At BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, American rapper Angel Haze performed "Drunk in Love", substituting Jay Z's verses with new lines that discuss empowerment and braggadocio.

[164] English singer Katy B performed a medley of "Drunk in Love" and Tinashe's "Vulnerable" during Rinse FM sessions at London's Metropolis Studios in late February 2014.

[171] Rita Ora covered "Drunk in Love" on May 25, 2014, during Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow and on the French television show Le Before du Grand Journal the following day.

[176] For the album 'BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge 2014', singer Angel Haze recorded an acoustic cover of the song, including Jay Z's rap verses.

[177] Ariana Bacle of Entertainment Weekly described the reference as "a (disapproving) nod" to the original song,[178] while The Daily Beast's Amy Zimmerman praised Liv for criticizing the effectiveness of Beyoncé's analogy.