[3] As of December 21, 2011[update], the 7th season was averaging a 5.3 rating / 14% share among adults 18–49, ranking as the 5th highest rated comedy series among adults 18–49.

Season seven of How I Met Your Mother received mixed reviews from critics.

Alan Sepinwall gave the season a mixed review and criticized the flash-forwards throughout the season saying, "the show is just much, much stronger when its stories dwell on matters of the present or the past, and where the writers don't have to act like magicians trying to keep the audience from figuring out how the trick works.

[7] Ethan Alter, of Television Without Pity, gave the season a lukewarm response.

In his review of the season finale, he criticized the Robin-Barney storyline throughout the season, writing "So after an entire season, we're basically right back where we started, with the writers having taken 24 episodes to stage a reveal that could have happened in the first five minutes of the premiere and had the exact same impact.