Upon release, Map of the Soul: 7 received critical acclaim, with praise towards the record's reflective narrative and cohesive production that experiments with various styles.

[15] The album expands on the themes and concepts of human psychology – "persona", "shadow" and "ego" and traces back the band's journey and growth of 7 years since their debut.

"[15] Described by BTS as "deeply personal", Map of the Soul: 7 is self-referential that sees the group looking deeper to share their individual stories through their music.

It's a lot more than just inspiration, this album contains our stories.Map of the Soul: 7 opens with the solo track "Intro: Persona", a hip hop and trap song, performed by RM.

"[32] The following track, "Boy With Luv" is a playful and fun bubblegum-pop, nu-disco and electropop song,[33][34][35] with disco, EDM, funk, synths and '80s pop elements.

[42] A rap rock, synth-pop and hip hop song, "Dionysus" includes multi-part hooks, a trap breakdown and double-time drums in the ending chorus.

[40][43] Noah Yoo of Pitchfork compared the song to Kendrick Lamar's 2012 single "Swimming Pools (Drank)" which is also "a meditation on alcoholism" and described "Dionysus" as "a moment of existential introspection disguised as a party-starter.

[22][2][1] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called it "a prime example of BTS at top strength: a pop moment that feels both intimately personal and exuberantly universal".

[19][1][21] The album's lead single "On" is a loud, lively hip-hop anthem that kicks off with an implosive drumroll in a marching band-style and incorporates choral harmonies and trap beats.

[1][24] The lyrics "Can't hold me down/ ‘Cuz you know I’m a fighter" and "bring the pain on" emphasizes the album's theme of fighting against darkness, accepting faults and moving forward.

"[19] "UGH" is an onomatopoeic hip hop track, featuring the rappers of the band (RM, J-Hope, and Suga) expressing their anger towards malicious haters in the backdrop of "distinctly" East Asian riffs, turbulent strings, gunshot effects, and plinking synths.

[53] "00:00 (Zero O'Clock)" is a sincere soft-pop ballad performed by the vocalists (Jin, Jungkook, V, and Jimin) and features soothing falsettos, vocal harmonies and a trap beat.

"[24] The pensive electro-influenced piano ballad sums up the entire journey of "Bangtan Sonyeondan" (방탄소년단): the Korean name and meaning behind the band.

[58] In a darker theme, Version 2 portrays them as fallen angels with jet-black wings, alluding to their single "Black Swan" and represents "unquenchable thirst".

[66] The album also included an alternative version of the lead single "On" in collaboration with Australian singer Sia, as the twentieth track of the digital-only release.

[92] Commercially, "On" debuted at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 86,000 downloads and 18.3 million U.S. streams, marking BTS's biggest sales week for a song.

"Connect, BTS" is a global public art project involving 22 contemporary artists across five cities: London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul and New York.

"[107] The project kicked off on January 14 at London's Serpentine Galleries with the launch of "Catharsis", a digital recreation of an ancient forest by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen.

[106] Other works include a "drawing in space" on New York's Brooklyn Bridge by British sculptor Antony Gormley using 11 kilometres of aluminium tubing.

[108] In Argentina, local contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno launched his environmentally-conscious "Aerocene Pacha" project that successfully flew a human above the Salinas Grandes into the sky using a solar-powered hot air balloon; it set several new world records for propane-free flight.

"[17] AllMusic's Neil Z.Yeung praised the album's concept and production, writing "they transform contemporary trends from the worlds of hip-hop, pop, and dance into a fittingly unique BTS experience.

"[54] August Brown of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the album is "about being in a band, about the relationships that form and get tested in the crucible of insane fame" along with "the darkest, strangest and yet most relevant and ambitious music BTS has made yet."

He commented that the record references to "their roots as a hip-hop act,[...] but attuned to today's misty, hard-kicking sonics and bolstered by everything they've learned in the intervening years as pop stars".

[52] Writing for NME, Rhian Daly deemed Map of the Soul: 7 "as an album full of big ideas, strong conviction and unguarded emotion.

"[22] Reviewing for The Independent, Roisin O’Connor called the album "a gorgeous tapestry" where "recurring themes speak to a duality in which they weave myriad emotions".

"[53] In a review published by Uproxx, Derrick Rossignol wrote: "Map of the Soul: 7 is a reflective album lyrically, and an adventurous one instrumentally, as the group brings disparate influences under their glossy pop umbrella.

"[121] Chester Chin, in her review for The Star, found the record sonically darker and felt that the band had reached the juncture on the album in their musical career "when the pursuit of artistry far outweighs those of commercial sensibilities.

"[122] Do-heon Kim from IZM considered the record "as a narrative that summarizes and epitomises the history of the K-pop boy band while also delving deeper on a personal level that retraces the past of BTS.

[153] The album's lead single, "On" debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 with 86,000 downloads and 18.3 million U.S. streams, marking BTS' biggest sales week for a song at the time.

[155][156][157] In November 2020, Map of the Soul: 7 was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which denotes one million album-equivalent units.