Grady Hall and Mark Kudsi directed the song's music video, which features Perry trying to adapt to the jungle and taming a tiger after surviving a plane crash.

By the end of 2013, "Roar" had sold over 9.9 million units (combined sales and track-equivalent streams) globally according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

When "Roar" was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Perry became the first artist to have three Diamond-certified singles in the country, the others being "Firework" and "Dark Horse".

[10] Musicnotes published this song in the key of B♭ major[11] in a 44 time signature with a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute.

[15] Perry announced "Roar" would be the first single from Prism with the release of a video teaser featuring the singer burning a blue wig.

It primarily shows Perry doing daily activities such as eating breakfast, going to the bathroom, and taking a bath while texting the lyrics of "Roar" to friends.

[28] Gerrick D. Kennedy from Los Angeles Times also gave a positive review, classifying "Roar" as a "sweet, poppy confection with a bit of bite".

[29] Melinda Newman from HitFix saw the song as a "great change of pace" for Perry,[30] whilst Andrew Hampp from Billboard believed it to be a return to the style of her album One of the Boys, but criticized its tempo and its lyrics that "rarely rise above easy clichés and rhymes".

[29][33][34][35] When asked about the controversy between the two songs, Bareilles answered: "Katy's a friend of mine and we've known each other a really long time", and was upset that there was a "negative spin on two artists that are choosing to share positive messages."

[38] On the Billboard Hot 100, the song debuted at number 85 on the week ending August 24, 2013, due to radio airplay.

[40] The song soared eighty-three positions to number two in its second week, becoming Perry's twelfth top-ten entry in the United States, and her ninth consecutive single to reach the top three on the Hot 100.

[43] On its seventh frame, the song moved 2-1 (peak audience impressions of 159 million) and became Perry's sixth number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, as well as becoming her fastest climb to the top position.

It also made the fastest ascension to the top spot; a record previously held by Perry's own single "California Gurls" (2010).

[53][54] The track has sold 6,600,000 copies in the US as of August 2020,[55] and when it was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in June 2017, Perry became the first artist to achieve this with 3 singles.

[60] In the United Kingdom, "Roar" entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart on September 8, 2013, selling 179,500 copies in its first week and ending the prolonged number-one run of Ellie Goulding's "Burn".

[65] It has sold 1,112,787 copies in the United Kingdom as of September 2017,[66] and has been certified quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

[79] After less than five weeks, the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand certified the single quadruple platinum, denoting sales exceeding 60,000 units.

[80] The song is listed as the 48th best-selling single of all time in New Zealand, making Perry the only singer to have the most entries, which including "California Gurls", "Firework" and "E.T.".

[91] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), "Roar" sold 9.9 million units (combined sales and track-equivalent streams) globally throughout 2013 and was the fifth-best-selling single of the year.

The video was released on September 5, 2013, directed by Grady Hall and Mark Kudsi, and filmed at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

[citation needed] At the beginning of the video, Perry and her boyfriend (played by actor and model Brian Nagel) have crashed their plane in the middle of the jungle.

Suddenly, he is attacked by a tiger as the music abruptly pauses and Perry dumps her bags and runs off screaming.

Behind her, in the darkness, there are dozens of pairs of blinking eyes, but they are revealed to be fireflies which fly around her before forming an image of a roaring tiger in the sky.

Presumably, a few days later, Perry has since made friends with a monkey and uses her stiletto heel to form a spear where she is now barefoot and only wearing what is left of her outfit.

The next morning, Perry emerges from the cave wearing a leopard-print bikini top, a grass skirt, and unspecified lacings on her legs.

With the help of the monkey, Perry builds a cat toy that she uses to distract the tiger who killed her boyfriend earlier in the video.

The only writer for the website that gave the visual a favorable review was Mike Wass, who appreciated the "campy element[s]" in it while noting that it drew inspiration from the music video for "Doctor Jones" by the dance-pop group Aqua.

Merrilee Burke from PETA stated: "Animals used for entertainment endure horrific cruelty and suffer from extreme confinement and violent training methods."

[115] "Roar" was also used as the theme song of world number 1 tennis player Serena Williams during the 2014 US Open Championships.

[116][117] Perry first performed "Roar" at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, in a specially-made boxing ring under the Brooklyn Bridge, at the end of the ceremony.