"Retrospectively, Jason Ankeny of "AllMusic" declared the album a "call to arms" that "explodes on contact", writing, "Of all the punk records to come out of the 1990s, "Personal Best" comes closest to actually recapturing the sheer passion and rage which originally spawned the movement two decades earlier".He praised how the band "never put their politics ahead of their songs — each of these ten tracks is airtight, with melodies as blistering as the lyrics".