The song reached the top ten on numerous worldwide music charts and reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest peak on the chart, as well as their first song that peaked within the top 40 in early 2002, making it a sleeper hit.

Chester Bennington, the band's lead vocalist, initially disliked the song and did not want it to be included on Hybrid Theory.

On March 27, 2002, the single was released in Japan as a 7-track CD called In the End: Live & Rare.

It contains live tracks of "Papercut", "Points of Authority," "A Place for My Head", "Step Up" (originally by the early Linkin Park precursor Hybrid Theory that appeared on the Hybrid Theory EP), "My December" and "High Voltage".

[13][14] Although the background for the "In the End" video was filmed in a California desert, the band itself performed on a studio stage in Los Angeles, with prominent CGI effects and compositing being used to create the finished version.

[14] The music video takes place in a fantasy setting and uses massive CGI animation.

During the time Mike raps his verses, Chester stands atop a platform with gargoyles on the edges.

Near the end of the video, the skies turn dark and it begins to rain, and the band performs in the downpour until the end of the song, where the rain stops and the camera pans away from the tower, showing the wasteland where Shinoda had rapped in is now a lush Greenland.

[17] In July 2020, the song became the second music video by the band that surpassed one billion views, after "Numb".

[20][21][22] The video was shot in 16:9 aspect ratio, and copies available on Linkin Park's (only first upload) and Warner Records YouTube channels are in 4:3 letterboxed format.

Second reupload on Linkin Park's YouTube channel is in native 16:9 aspect ratio.

Upon the release of the 20th Anniversary Box set for Hybrid Theory, the video was then upgraded to HD quality.

[25] NME, however, was more critical of the song, calling it "...another slab of gormless MTV rap rock from the bottom of the food chain".

It is currently the second most successful song for the band in Australia, tied with "One Step Closer" and behind "New Divide".

In the week starting July 30, 2017, the single re-entered the charts, at number 10, more than 15 years since the song last appeared in the top 50, following the death of lead singer Chester Bennington.

by hip hop artist Jay-Z on their collaborative extended play, Collision Course, and uses the sample used "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"

The song features hip hop artists Motion Man and KutMasta Kurt.

Random clips are played and Mike Shinoda is once again seen driving, holding a small wired camera.

In 2017, producer Markus Schulz made a trance remix of "In the End" as a tribute to Chester Bennington after the latter's death, which he debuted at Tomorrowland.