Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 received critical acclaim, with the PlayStation 2 version being tied for highest-rated PlayStation 2 game on Metacritic alongside Grand Theft Auto III,[9] and selling over 2.1 million copies in the United States by July 2006.

The game features thirteen professional skateboarders, along with several unlockable original characters, depending on the version.

In both the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions, the wooden sides on the board (around the grip tape) has colors (except Bam Margera, Jamie Thomas, and the custom skater's decks), and the game has new tricks such as the Cannonball, Wrap Around, Fingerflip, Del Mar Indy and a new animation for the Airwalk.

Shortly prior to release, Neversoft quickly amended some of the objectives in the Airport level due to sensitivity reasons in light of the September 11, 2001 attacks, where terrorist non-player characters were instead reskinned into pickpockets.

[12] Chester Barber of Next Generation gave five stars out of five for PlayStation 2 version, highly praising the gameplay, new tricks to perform, graphics and controls.

Next Generation ranked it as the 14th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in the country.

Combined sales of Tony Hawk console games released in the 2000s reached 10.7 million units in the U.S. by July 2006.

[46] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was a runner-up for GameSpot's 2002 "Best Sports Game on PC" award, which went to Madden NFL 2003.