Five singles were released from the album: "The Final Countdown", "Love Chaser", "Rock the Night", "Carrie", and "Cherokee."

"Rock the Night" and "Ninja" were the first songs written for the album, and were premiered on the band's Wings of Tomorrow tour in 1984.

"[6][8] "Rock the Night" and "On the Loose" would be re-recorded for inclusion on The Final Countdown along with "Ninja", all with slightly different lyrics.

[6] Due to the national success of On the Loose and "Rock the Night", Europe went on a new tour around Sweden in 1985, with new songs "Danger on the Track", "Love Chaser" and the power ballad "Carrie" included in the setlist and ready to be recorded for the album.

[6] Guitarist John Norum was not pleased with the result, claiming that the keyboards had "buried" the rhythm guitars in the final mix.

Rolling Stone Magazine writer J. D. Considine wrote that "the words to 'The Final Countdown' make almost no sense whatsoever on paper, but there's genuine drama to the way Tempest's keening vocals surge through the mock-orchestral morass of synths and guitar.

From the stirring stadium schlock of 'Rock the Night' to the self-indulgent melodrama of 'Love Chaser', the best moments here are insidiously catchy, leaving you humming along against your better judgment".

was not excited by the album and considered Europe "just bland and boring" and "boasting the most nauseating keyboard sound on a title track of all time".

He finds the title track "bombastically brilliant glorious garbage ... that could only spew from the vacuous '80s", but writes that the rest of the songs combines "heated drive and hot delivery to meld The Final Countdown into a unique portrait of propulsive prog and a worthy addition to any hard rock collection.

"[27] Canadian Journalist Martin Popoff remarks how the album "sounds very nice, rhythmic, even modern beyond its years, but it's also gutless and shamefully commercial".

[28] PopMatters' Ben Varkentine, on the contrary, reviewed badly the album criticizing the production and the composition of "rock songs with half-assed keyboard lines smeared on them", which "aimed at being anthems but succeeded only in being derivative not only of other bands but of themselves.

[12] These concerts were filmed for a TV broadcast, which would later be released on VHS and DVD, entitled The Final Countdown Tour 1986.

[8] At first Marcello had been hesitant to join Europe, because he had put a lot of work into Easy Action's upcoming album That Makes One.

[21] A concert done at Hammersmith Odeon, London on 23 February, was filmed and released on video, entitled The Final Countdown World Tour.

Instrumental "Where Men Won't Dare", co-written by Tempest and John Levén, was an unfinished outtake which was included as a bonus feature on The Final Countdown Tour 1986: Live in Sweden – 20th Anniversary Edition DVD.

[12] In 2001, Sony released a remastered version of the album with expanded liner notes and three bonus tracks, live takes of "The Final Countdown", "Danger on the Track" and "Carrie", taken from the Final Countdown World Tour home video that was taped at Hammersmith Odeon in London 1987.