It entered the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart at number three, making it one of the highest debuts of the last several years and becoming the band's first number one on that chart since "Who You Are" in 1996. "World Wide Suicide" was also the band's first number one single of any sort in eight years (since "Given to Fly" reached number one on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1998). "World Wide Suicide" was the most successful song from "Pearl Jam" on the American rock charts. The song peaked at number 41 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number two on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and number one on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song spent a total of three weeks at number one on the Modern Rock chart. Without selling any hard copies of the single or distributing CDs to radio programmers, consultants and industry contacts, "World Wide Suicide" became the first digitally delivered number one song in Canadian radio history. On the song's radio success, Vedder stated, "I don't think two or three years ago you could even get a song called "World Wide Suicide" with the word "soldier" in it played on the radio. The fact that it's getting played a lot, maybe that means that the ocean that is freedom of speech is still healthy enough for a fish to survive in."