"Play On," former "American Idol" champ Carrie Underwood [ tickets ]'s third album, makes its debut this week at the top of the US album chart, a spot her sophomore effort occupied two years ago.

With first week sales of 318,000 copies, "Play On" fell short of Underwood's "Carnival Ride," which moved 527,000 copies during its first week of release back in 2007, but it's still more than enough for the new set claim the No. 1 spot on the latest Billboard 200 chart. The feat also marks the biggest one-week sales total for a female recording artist in 2009, and the second-best sales week for the country genre as a whole in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan retail data as reported by Billboard.

With Underwood taking over the top slot, last week's No. 1 entry, Michael Jackson's "This Is It," drops one notch to No. 2 with sales of 196,000 copies. Meanwhile, Andrea Bocelli [ tickets ]'s "My Christmas" debuts in the No. 3 position with sales of 149,000 copies; the "Glee" soundtrack logs on at No. 4 with 113,000 copies; and the "Now 32" hits compilation enters at No. 5 with 102,000 copies.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Taylor Swift [ tickets ]'s "Fearless" at No. 6 with 70,000 copies; Weezer [ tickets ]'s "Raditutde" at No. 7 with 66,000 copies; Michael Buble [ tickets ]'s "Crazy Love" at No. 8 with 59,000 copies; Sting [ tickets ]'s "If On a Winter's Night" at No. 9 with just shy of Buble's total; and the "New Moon" soundtrack at No. 10 with 52,000 copies.