On July 12, 2009, Spears confirmed through her Twitter account that she had begun recording new material, stating she was going into the studio with Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin.

[7] The song received positive reviews from critics,[8][9] and debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, breaking many chart records.

[11] "3" also debuted at number one in Canada and reached the top ten in Australia, Belgium (Wallonia), Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the collection five stars and compared it to Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, saying that although they had the same length, they were "different listening experiences".

[...] It does result in a stronger overall listen, since there are no slow patches here, just a parade of relentless hooks and rhythms that wound up defining the sound of a decade".

[2] Mayer Nissim of Digital Spy also gave the album five stars stating that "[it] perfectly captures the career of one of the best singles artists of the last ten years.

Running from '...Baby One More Time' to 'Radar', you get a single-disc timeline that shows a progression in style and substance from school uniform-wearing pop ingénue to sultry motorik saucepot.

[...] The only arguable weak link is the Madonna-featuring 'Me Against the Music', but in this context what once looked like a respectful passing of the baton now seems like an unconditional surrender of pop Queendom to its rightful heir."

[15] Brian Linder of IGN commented "2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative [...] captured the highlights from Britney's heyday, but lacks the more mature club-oriented material that she's churned out in recent years.

[16] Mike Diver of BBC Online called it "the definitive Britney album" and added that "these songs don't just make a mark, lingering in the memory – they are essential pieces of the past ten years of pop history, and deserve better than dismissal by so-called discerning listeners".

[18] Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called the album "a high-gloss collection of tunes that selectively sums up the career of one of the biggest female pop singers of the past decade.