Although the song was not released as a single in the United States, it was released as a single in Europe, and reached number 15 in Sweden. It also charted in Germany and the Netherlands.

It also charted in Australia. There, it was released as part of a four-track single:
199 "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" [studio version]
299 "Born to Run" [live]
399 "Darkness on the Edge of Town" [live]
499 "Thunder Road" [live]
The three live tracks were culled from 2000 Reunion Tour shows featured on the Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City DVD; the latter two had not appeared on the parallel Live in New York City CD release.

This four-track configuration was also released as an EP titled Waitin' on a Sunny Day in 2004.

Despite its success as a live track and hit status in Europe, it wasn't released on any Bruce Springsteen compilation album. However, it was released on the Bruce Springsteen Live Series album Songs of Summer. It's the most streamed track from its album on Spotify.

A music video was released in 2002 although it was not of the studio version and instead the live performance from the DVD, Live in Barcelona.

The song has become a standout in concert performances by Springsteen and the E Street Band. It was a centerpiece of The Rising Tour, often played immediately after the somber "Empty Sky" and "You're Missing" to lift the crowd's spirits. From the beginning, his performances of it featured crowd interaction, with the song's simple chorus making it easy for the audience to assimilate and sing along en masse. A Rising Tour performance documented on the 2003 Live in Barcelona concert DVD features a rearranged, drum-less opening section, a chorus given to sideman Steve Van Zandt, and Springsteen walking along the front row of the pit and then stopping the band to allow the crowd to sing by itself.

"Waitin' on a Sunny Day" received a segment during Bruce Springsteen's appearance on the VH1 Storytellers television program in 2005 (later released on his VH1 Storytellers DVD), then appeared in a few encores during the subsequent 2005 solo Devils & Dust Tour. It was then played intermittently during Springsteen and the band's 2007–2008 Magic Tour.

It then resumed a full role during the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, appearing in virtually all of the shows. Springsteen commonly picked out one or more youngsters from the front of the pit area and had them sing along on the song. Despite still being a "new" song compared to much of Springsteen's concert repertoire, it nonetheless got a strong audience response. One such performance was included on video on the London Calling: Live in Hyde Park concert DVD in 2010. Featuring drums, a Clemons baritone sax part and a Nils Lofgren slide guitar part all from the start, Springsteen played the song to the hilt, running along the front of the Hard Rock Calling audience (a general festival crowd that was not all Springsteen fans), encouraging and getting singalongs at every chorus, and getting a boy sitting on his parents' shoulders to sing. Youngster-featured performances continued as a staple of the 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour. However, the song's constant presence and predictable format in concerts (almost always toward the end of the main set, with a crowd sing-along and a child picked out from the pit to sing) have caused it to be widely disliked among hardcore fans, many of whom take a bathroom break each time it is played. In response, an employee in Shore Fire Media said, "The song and singalong is enjoyed by tens of thousands every night. We love our devoted fans who go to multiple shows, but they have to remember they are still a minority of the total audience."