Upon its release, "The Best Damn Thing" received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised Lavigne's transition from grungey alternative rock music to more pop-punk and bubblegum pop music, with it being catchy and very radio-friendly. However, the main criticism of the album was the lyrical content, which some found too rough or brutal. The album debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with first-week sales of 289,000 copies. The album also debuted atop the charts in Austria, Canada, the United Kingdom and many other countries. AltPress listed it as one of the albums that best represented the pop-punk scene in 2007.