Channing Freeman of Sputnikmusic viewed that track, along with "All of the Lights" and "Power" have "a certain zest of life" to them, adding that all three tracks were "beautiful". He also commented that "it is great to see that Kanye is still able to have plenty of fun without losing any of his creativity." Dan Vidal of "URB" commented "sonically, the joy comes from the triumphant, painstaking arrangement that undoubtedly went into the production". "The Washington Post"'s Chris Richards mused that "the drums come avalanching on Lost in the World", calling it "the grand finale this album deserves." He continued that "West serves up high drama at a breakneck tempo, with pining melodies crying out for a redemptive moment. But there's no final act of contrition. West is too 'lost in this plastic life.'" Cole Mathew of Slant Magazine described the track as "Kanye's much-anticipated reworking of Bon Iver's "Woods" from his classic EP", and wrote that "it's astounding how he takes the strangest sample on the album and crafts it into a defiantly giddy dance number, complete with tribal drumming in the verses and group choruses that sound massive. It's a mad stroke of brilliance to take Justin Vernon's solitary ode to alienation and use it as the centerpiece of a catchy, communal reverie. It's experimental, to be sure, but it's also the closest the album comes to pure pop indulgence." The song peaked on the South Korean Gaon Music Chart at position 104. In 2017, critics writing for "Billboard" named the song the fourth best deep cut by a 21st Century Pop Star. In 2019, MTV named it among the best overlooked songs of the decade.