Katy Perry is an important cornerstone of our popular culture. In the early 2010s, nobody could escape her songs from "I Kissed A Girl," "California Gurls," or "Dark Horse." Since debuting as a gospel singer in her teenage years, Perry has a total of six studio albums, one live album, and one re-issue of a compilation album with dozens of accolades.

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Her latest album, Smile, was just released in August 2020. To celebrate her excellence, here's a little look-back to Perry's album discography, ranking it based on its first-week sales, according to Billboard.

8 'Katy Hudson' (Approx. 200 Copies)

Before becoming who we know today, teenage Katy Perry started her career as a gospel singer. She signed with Christian label Red Hill Records under her birth name and made her debut, Katy Hudson, in 2001. However, it was notoriously unsuccessful. It barely sold 200 copies, and the imprint went bankrupt before the album was even released. After all, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

"I'm a pastor's kid so I grew up knowing about Christ and Christianity and stuff like that. I didn't actually make it my own until I was going through a process when I was 13," the singer recalled about her personal belief.

7 'Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection' (Approx. 33,000 Copies)

Two years after releasing her magnum opus Teenage Dream, Perry released a reissue version of the album. Titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, the album features some of the never-before-heard versions of three newly-recorded songs, three remixes, and one acoustic rendition of "The One That Got Away." Although the album only sold 33,000 copies within the first week, it helped the original Teenage Dream to re-enter the top ten of the Billboard 200.

6 'One Of The Boys' (Approx. 47,000 Copies)

Suffering from commercial failure during her career as a teenage singer, Katy Perry ventured into more secular music with One of the Boys. Released under the Capitol Records banner, the powerhouse singer fuses pop and soft rock and centers around the theme of heartbreak, sexuality, and most importantly, partying. Singles like "I Kissed A Girl," "Hot n Cold," and "Waking Up in Vegas" helped propel the sleeper-hit album to where it is now.

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5 'Smile' (Approx. 50,000 Album-Equivalent Units)

Perry's latest album, Smile, was released in 2020. Supported by singles like "Daisies" and "Smile," it centers around her "journey towards the light, with stories of resilience, hope, and love." Unfortunately, the album didn't do so well commercially. Although she did make her fifth top-10 album in the U.S. with this album, Smile clocked at 50,000 album-equivalent units within the first week, making it her lowest since 2013's Witness.

4 'MTV: Unplugged Live' (63,000 Copies)

Katy Perry released her first-ever, and probably only ever, live album, MTV: Unplugged, in 2009. The extended play features give acoustic rearrangements from her major-label debut, One of the Boys, along with a previously unheard song and a soothing rendition of Fountains of Wayne's "Hackensack." There was no record of its first-week sales, but it has reportedly sold 63,000 copies in the U.S. alone per August 2020.

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3 'Witness' (Approx. 180,000 Album-Equivalent Units)

In 2017, Katy Perry took us to her world of self-empowerment and purposeful pop with Witness. Although the fifth studio album met with mixed views from the critics, it moved 180,000 album-equivalent units within the first-week thanks to singles like "Chained to the Rhythm," and "Bon Appétit." Plus, her ongoing feud with Taylor Swift at that time, which based the song "Swish Swish," helped the album debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

2 'Teenage Dreams' (Approx. 192,000 Copies)

No one could escape Teenage Dreams from the radio back in the early 2010s. The disco-influenced coming-of-age record birthed five chart-topping singles, like its self-titled lead single, "Teenage Dream", "Firework", Kanye West-featured "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night." Teenage Dream landed on several decade-end best album lists, making it undoubtedly the best piece of art Perry has ever released to this day.

"The records are black boxes for me. Like if you want to know who I am, my views, my perspective, things I love, things I hate, my convictions, my anthems. I've never let people's opinions affect the way I write," she told The Guardian.

1 'Prism' (Approx. 286,000 Copies)

After a nasty divorce and a series of public controversies, Katy Perry went super-candid in her 2013 Prism album. Not only did it become the highest-selling album of her discography to this date, but it also witnessed Perry's transformation in terms of lyrical content. In fact, she even scored the second best-selling album of the year by a female singer at that time. She was a global phenomenon at the height of her commercial peak, and still is.

"I just feel like I'm going to be criticized regardless of what I do next, so I might as well do something that I feel really passionate about," said the singer about her album, as noted by Capital.

Next: This Is What Led To Katy Perry’s Downfall In The Music Industry