In the United Kingdom, BBC Radio 1 decided not to play Madonna's single as their playlist committee did not think the record was good enough for heavy airplay and because their head of music, George Ergatoudis, thought her fans were older than their target demographic.
At their year end ranking of the Top 25 Singles of 2015, Slant Magazine listed "Living for Love" at number 25.
The music video was released on picture messaging application Snapchat on February 5, 2015, where it was available for viewing on the application's "Snap Channel" platform.
Madonna first performed "Living for Love" at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards on February 8, 2015.
Across Europe, the song debuted at number 50 in France, number 12 in Hungary and number 21 in Spain.