"Ghosttown" was released to iTunes Store as part of the album's pre-order in December 2014, in response to hackers leaking songs from Rebel Heart.

Internationally, "Ghosttown" reached the top 20 in Hungary and Italy, and the digital charts of Finland and Sweden, and was certified platinum by the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI).

The main theme behind the video was "an apocalyptic situation mimicking the end of the world", showing the singer and Howard as sole survivors in a destroyed city.

[3]While discussing the song's theme with French radio Europe 1, Madonna spoke about the intolerance going around the world, especially in France whom she believed to have lost its ability to accept people of all race and color.

[10][11] Thematically, introspection was also listed as one of the foundational themes prevalent in Rebel Heart, with genuine statements of careerist and personal reflections of Madonna and her "obsessive self-regard".

"[13] Jim Farber from New York Daily News said that the song brings out "the warmest elements of [Madonna's] voice" and "at times, her alto [range] sounds like Karen Carpenter's, while the melody has the enveloping calm of hits like 'Live to Tell'".

Two of the remixes were released on Madonna's Tidal streaming account, including one by DJ RedTop as well as Armand Van Helden, Offer Nissim and Roger Sanchez.

[38] Digital Spy's Lewis Corner rated it four out of five stars, noting that Madonna sounded "significantly more subdued and reflective compared to her handbag bangers of recent years, but by doing so it makes the biggest possible impact.

With the ample presence of melodies, Stern reminisced that one of the major complaints about Madonna's past few studio albums was a lack of memorable lyrics, which was dissipated with "Ghosttown".

[42] Jed Gottlieb from the Boston Herald commended Billboard's production techniques, and the blend of EDM and lyrical introspection, while focusing on the "catchy" chorus.

[43] Jon Pareles from The New York Times found the song to be a mixture of "affection and post-apocalyptic gloom", adding that "it begs for a dystopian-romance video".

[44] Michael Jose Gonzalez from Danish music magazine, Gaffa, praised Madonna's decision to give emphasis on her singing, with "trouble embossed and melodic" tracks like "Ghosttown".

[47] Zel McCarthy from Vice relegated the song to being an "album filler" but believed that it displayed Madonna's "vocal chops and rarely-deployed emotional sincerity".

[24] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine had initially considered it as the least memorable song among the six tracks released for pre-order,[48] however in another review for the album he explained, "A decade of disco-Madonna makes it easy to forget that she's a skilled balladeer, and the post-apocalyptic 'Ghosttown' takes a generic, contemporary-pop template (think 'Halo') and stamps it with her singular style a la 1994's Babyface-penned 'Take a Bow'.

[52] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chuck Arnold opined that "its haunting atmospherics and lyrics of a post-Armageddon world, are eerily prescient of the Trump-era despair", listing it as the singer's 38th best single.

[53] On a mixed review, Paul Schrodt from Slant Magazine opined that "with its rote production and gratuitous use of Auto-Tune, ["Ghosttown"] is far from being one of Madonna's more searing ballads".

[73] Madonna's look in the video was styled by B. Åkerlund, wife of Jonas, who blended contemporary fashion trends like military-bandleader-Victorian and gave it her signature characteristics.

The latter told them about her inspiration and concepts for the designs, and Stark's team put together the leather pieces and jacket structures, and finalized on buttons and cross patches.

The whole costume took about a week and a total of 30 people to finish it, to achieve the "Apocalyptic meets Rock & Roll with a bit of a ship wrecked mood" vibe that Åkerlund had wanted.

The lace shorts Madonna wore was vintage, and Åkerlund burnt up the singer's Agent Provocateur bra and applied dirt on it for giving special effects.

[73] With Swedish broadcasting channel Sveriges Television, Åkerlund explained that for the opening shot, where Madonna is shown lying on the bed, she wanted boots which looked like leg braces.

The clip showed Madonna in a black, leather outfit, running through a bleak, destroyed area, the scene interspersed with religious symbols like an immaculate heart as well as animal carcasses.

Madonna is seen in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic destroyed city, where there are no signs of life and posters of the Rebel Heart album are shown burning.

[83] Louis Virtel from HitFix made 10 observations about the video, but concluded that there should have been more dance sequences to liven up the visuals, and hence could not live up to other "all-time great" Madonna releases.

[84] Kory Grow from Rolling Stone complimented the visual, saying that the "better part of the video is a mostly harrowing scene for the pop star" and compared it to the TV series The Last Man on Earth.

However, Mike Wass from Idolator negative critiqued the video, calling it a "ham-fisted embarrassment complete with lame special effects, an unnecessary celebrity appearance and the most awkward dance scene of all time.

He criticized the overall execution of the clip, saying that "In another director's hands (like, say, M's friend and frequent collaborator Steven Klein), 'Ghosttown' might have been more than just ridiculous, glorified ruin porn, but at least there are no zombies.

[98][99] In the giant screens located on either side of the platform, burning cities of images were broadcast, as well as those of the World Trade Center collapses during the attack of September 11, 2001.

[100] The next performance happened at The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the United States, where Madonna sang "Ghosttown" wearing a black leather dress.

[102] Elizabeth Vanmetre from New York Daily News noted that it was a "subdued" performance for Madonna[103] while Mikael Wood from Los Angeles Times called it an "appealingly breezy version of the song".