 Live 'r Than You'll Ever Be was reviewed by Greil Marcus in the 7 February 1970, issue of Rolling Stone. In his review, Marcus praises the sound of the album and speculates that it may have been recorded from the stage; footage from this concert was recorded by ABKCO Records for the film Gimme Shelter. The album also received praise as a more authentic example of the Stones on stage because Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! was heavily overdubbed in many places. Richie Unterberger has noted that the recording is inferior to the sound quality of Ya-Ya's, but displays a spontaneity that the official recording lacks and this helps to explain its long-lasting appeal to fans. Reviewing the album in 1970, Wim Wenders called it "the best Rolling Stones record." The album would eventually sell enough copies to qualify for a gold record RIAA certification, with TMOQ sources claiming that it had sold 250,000 copies by November 1970 — 150,000 of which were produced by other bootleggers. Although the album did not chart on the Billboard 200, the magazine did include it in a list of best-selling bootlegs in 1971, noting that hard sales figures were impossible to confirm, but six-figure sales had been routinely discussed. The sleeve's generic design was later copied by The Who's 1970 album Live at Leeds.
