In an interview in 1998, the four members of Culture Club agreed that “Colour By Numbers” was their best work. It was remastered in 2002 and 2003, for the Culture Club box set and for a re-release of the album. In 2005, the album was also released in Japan in a cardboard sleeve, similar to the original vinyl artwork, featuring also the remastered tracks and five bonus songs like the 2003 version.

The album went gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in many countries. It went 4x platinum in the United States at its time of release (more than 4 million copies sold) and peaked at #2 (behind Michael Jackson's Thriller). In Canada, Culture Club was the first group to have a diamond album in that country (10x platinum or one million copies sold).