The song was also featured in the video game Linkin Park Revenge for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

"The Catalyst", along with five other songs from A Thousand Suns, are featured in the "Linkin Park Track Pack" as downloadable content for the rhythm video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

The winner of this contest was Czesław "NoBraiN" Sakowski from Świdnica, Poland, whose remix was featured as an additional downloadable track on the Best Buy version of A Thousand Suns, and also available on Napster.

[9][10] The liner notes for A Thousand Suns also credit Sakowski with "Supplemental Programming" on "When They Come for Me", the album's fifth track.

[12] "The Catalyst" has also been featured in the trailer of the video game Medal of Honor, which premiered on August 1, 2010 and was directed by Joe Hahn.

[15] On September 15, 2010, Warner Music Japan announced that the song will be the official theme song of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.[16][17][18][19] On August 31, 2010, it was announced that the band would perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.

[23] The clip for the 2010 VMAs performance was shown at the 2017 edition, as a tribute to Bennington, who died a month before the awards show.

Speaking to MTV News when the single was released, bassist Dave Farrell would further elaborate how the sound of "The Catalyst" would end up fitting into the grander scheme of things when it came to the then-forthcoming album A Thousand Suns.

According to bassist Phoenix,[citation needed] the video contains references to the Bhagavad Gita as well as the Christian apocalypse, with Joe Hahn saying it was influenced by J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Jason Lipshutz of Billboard called the song a "nearly six-minute anthem of aggression", emphasizing on the transition from electronica to a slow dirge midway through the track.

He also added that it recalls the vocal chants from Muse and political commentaries from Green Day, which the band fuses to create "an original, if a bit awkward, transition from twisty techno to fist-pumping rock".

[3] Jason Treuen of The Music Network, in his review of A Thousand Suns, called the song "the best distillation of Linkin Park 2.0", and concluded by noting that "If [the album] was a film, this would be the victorious fight scene.".

[33] The New York Post named "The Catalyst" the 139th best song of 2010, saying "An electronic rave transforms into a power ballad.