"Consequence of Sound" editor Michael Roffman praised the group for being able to produce a "timeless and influential composition" with minimal effort. Roffman also noted that "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was appropriate when it was first time, calling it a "meditative commentary on an era that was so corrupt economically and spiritually." AllMusic's Stanton Swihart expressed in his retrospective review that the group "perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic." "Pitchfork" called it a song with "near-universal appeal", as well as a staple for "classic-rock radio, pharmacies, bars, and parties." In their review for the best albums of the 1980s, Eric Henderson from "Slant Magazine" stated that the song "seems like one of the great indictments of the materialism and false triumphalism of the decade."