American Idol winner Ruben Studdard's new album, Soulful, has debuted in the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart, it was confirmed today.

Numbers out from Nielsen Soundscan confirm that the album sold 416,500 copies in the United States, becoming the third American Idol album to open at number one.

However, those numbers didn't top those set by Clay Aiken's Measure of a Man - that album sold 613,000 copies when it opened. Ruben did beat the 297,000 copies sold when Kelly Clarkson's Thankful made its debut.