Which past American Idol contestants have the best-selling records?

Kelly Clarkson has put out three albums so far, with another due in the spring of 2009.  Carrie Underwood, whose numbers are close to Clarkson’s (less than 300,000 behind), has only put out two albums to date.  The other American Idol contestants who’ve gone on to have strong sales include Clay Aiken (Season Two, runner-up) with just under half of Clarkson’s sales, Chris Daughtry (Season Five, fourth place) at a couple hundred thousand fewer than Aiken, and Ruben Studdard (Season Two, winner) with almost half the sales of his competitor, Aiken.

Rounding out the top twelve of American Idol contestants are (in order of most to fewest sales) Fantasia (Season Three, winner) with approximately 2.2 million, Jordin Sparks (Season Six, winner) with just under a million, Kellie Pickler (Season Five, sixth place), Josh Gracin (Season Two, fourth place), Bo Bice (Season Four, runner-up), and Taylor Hicks (Season Five, winner) with around 700,000 sales.  Of course, David Cook, winner of Season Seven, just released his first album in the fall of 2008, and already he’s sold over 840,000 copies, which puts him just after Kellie Pickler in the overall stats – and this after a few months compared to the others.  David Archuleta, the Season Seven runner-up, has already sold over 500,000 copies of his first album.

American Idol, Season Eight, begins January 13, 2009 – it’ll be interesting to see what stars are born this spring.