As in previous installments, players must mimic the routine of an on-screen dancer to a chosen song, scoring points based on their accuracy.

All online services of the game were discontinued for the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions on November 19, 2018,[5] followed by all other platforms on July 3, 2023.

[6] The following songs appear on Just Dance 2017: Note: "In the Hall of the Pixel King" by Dancing Bros. (based on "In the Hall of the Mountain King", written by Edvard Grieg, and "Ode to Joy", written by Ludwig van Beethoven) and "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" by Brian Hyland (covered by The Sunlight Shakers) were planned to appear in the game, but they were scrapped for unknown reasons.

A three-month subscription to Just Dance Unlimited was included as part of a higher-priced version of the game, also known as the "Gold Edition".

The 2017 game supported Just Dance Unlimited on eighth-generation consoles, on PC, and on Nintendo Switch until July 3, 2023.

Steve Hannley of Hardcore Gamer thought that although Ubisoft had defied his prediction that Just Dance Unlimited would be the future of the franchise instead of physical releases, they had put a larger effort into the on-disc content of 2017 than 2016 (which he described as being a "last minute afterthought" to introduce Unlimited).

Hannley also praised the higher quality of the game's soundtrack, including more recent hit music, fewer "joke" songs, and surfacing Gigi Rowe's "impressive" debut single "Run the Night".

In conclusion, Hannley continued to assert that Ubisoft should focus more on providing more immediate access to recent music rather than requiring players to wait for the next annual physical release, but that Just Dance 2017 was "thankfully a marked improvement over its predecessor.