It is frequently rated as one of the best albums in music history and is widely regarded as Prince's masterpiece. TIME magazine named it the 15th -15th - best album ever in 1993 and VH1 ranked it 18th -18th - on their list of "the best rock & roll albums ever". Rolling Stone magazine named it the second best album of the 1980s and ranked it seventy-sixth - 76th - on their list of "greatest albums of all time". His first two singles: "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" topped the charts in the United States and the world, while "Purple Rain" reached the second position on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified with the Platinum distinction thirteen times by the RIAA.

In 2007, editors at Vanity Fair magazine named it the best soundtrack ever, while Tempo magazine named it the best album of the decade. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly listed Purple Rain at the top of their list of "The 100 Greatest Albums of the Last 25 Years" and in 2013, ranked it second on its list of "The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked it second best album of the 1980s, second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller. In the same year, the United States Library of Congress added the album to its National Recording Registry because of its "high cultural, historical, and cultural value. aesthetic".