"Survival" served as the official theme song of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, United Kingdom and was released following its premiere on BBC Radio 1.

He continued that "'Survival' might be amongst the most ear-scorchingly, arse-burstingly, aneurysm-inducingly brilliant songs in Muse’s canon, but it’ll forever be deemed corny by its association with one long-past sporting event.

"[7] Adam Boult of The Guardian referred to the track as "a hilarious five-minute onslaught of camp, falling somewhere between Queen, Gloria Gaynor and a Monty Python sketch.

"[8] Meanwhile, Jon Holmes of BBC Radio 4's The Now Show described it as an "Epically proportioned cacophony of enormous noise" that was like "the sound of an orchestra falling down some stairs" created by "throwing a hand-grenade into a music cupboard and recording the results".

He depicted the drumkit as like "the noise of a rhino knocking a wall down" and memorably stated that "This is the song I want to hear when the world ends".