Upon its release as a single, Dave Jennings of
Melody Maker noted "Was It Worth It?" had "the chunkiest, most muscular music to appear on a PSB track in a long time" and added that
Tennant's vocal is "so fey, even by his standards, that it threatens to evaporate at any moment". He noted the song is "genuinely, surprisingly uplifting" as Tennant sings about "the usual Pet Shop themes [of] passion, regret and compromise, [but] from an unusually positive angle", and concluded it would be "a large and welcome hit". Barbara Ellen of
NME felt the song was "not their best" and "sounds profoundly like a pastiche of every other song they've done before", but noted "its floor-scorching elegance, its deadpan distortion of The Love Song, and that daffy commitment they continue to have to everything sepia-tinted and forgotten". She also praised Tennant's vocals for "getting more accomplished with every record", adding that it's "nice to hear him singing about love and liberation in unveiled terms for once". Andy Kastanas from
The Charlotte Observer wrote, "The sacred cow of
disco never died for these guys (as evidenced by this song) and there's plenty of violins and a "
hi-NRG" beat to prove it." Joe Brown from
The Washington Post declared it as "a fierce disco anthem to rival "
I Will Survive"." ==Track listings==