American Idol: How Many Albums Katy Perry Has Sold In Her Career

American Idol season 19 judge Katy Perry has sold millions of albums over the course of her long-running career as a chart-topping pop star. Before she branded herself as Katy Perry, she was just an aspiring singer known as Katheryn Hudson (her legal name). At the time, Katy was releasing songs in the contemporary gospel genre, and they had a touch of a pop rock production. So, in 2001, she released the self-titled Katy Hudson album, which didn’t at all have the success that her later works experienced. It was only in 2008 that Katy would break out in the music biz.

Katy Perry is currently working on her first-ever Las Vegas residency concert, which is scheduled to start in the second half of 2021. As a pop star, Katy is best known for smash hits like “I Kissed A Girl”, “California Gurls”, “Firework”, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, “Roar”, “Dark Horse”, and “Never Really Over”. Throughout her career, which now spans two decades, Katy has released six studio albums. Alas, only five of them were under the Katy Perry re-brand, as many fans don’t count the Katy Hudson album as part of her actual pop career.

Besides being the highest-paid female judge in the history of American Idol, Katy Perry has sold a total of 17,967,000 albums in her career. This includes 2008’s One Of The Boys (7 million copies), 2010’s Teenage Dream (6 million copies), 2013’s Prism (4 million copies), 2017’s Witness (900,000 copies), and 2020’s Smile (67,000 copies). Between her music sales, merchandise sales, business endeavors, marketing contracts, and American Idol salary of $25 million per season, Katy Perry has an estimated net worth of $330 million (via Celebrity Net Worth). This value will surely increase once Katy’s Las Vegas residency begins later this year.

Katy Perry’s overall popularity can also be measured by the sales of her singles. Her best-selling singles include “Dark Horse” (13.2 million copies), “Firework” (7.4 million copies), “California Gurls” (6.7 million copies), “Roar” (6.6 million copies), “E.T.” (6 million copies), “Hot N Cold” (5.8 million copies), and “I Kissed A Girl” (4.8 million copies). On the Billboard Hot 100, Katy has as many as nine #1 singles, as well as 14 songs that entered the chart’s Top 10 ranking. Needless to say, Katy Perry is one of the most popular and successful pop stars in the music industry, and she has a legion of fans to prove how far her reach goes.

From the looks of it, ABC will keep Katy Perry as a judge on American Idol once the show is renewed for season 20. Her dynamic with fellow judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie has been working for four seasons, so there is no clear reason to let any of them go anytime soon.

American Idol season 19 airs Sundays & Mondays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Sources: Celebrity Net Worth

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Bernardo Sim
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Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

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