PDC Order of Merit

The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.^[1]

The Order of Merit is similar to that employed in golf's European Tour. Prize money won during the previous two seasons is calculated and the rankings are determined from this money list. The Professional Darts Corporation adopted an Order of Merit system in 2007, which is based on prize money won over two years for the main Order of Merit and separate one-year rankings for other PDC Pro Tour events.

PDC Order of Merit as of 31 October 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,754,750
2		Michael Smith	£1,031,500
3		Michael van Gerwen	£933,000
4		Rob Cross	£606,000
5	1	Jonny Clayton	£546,750
6	1	Dave Chisnall	£540,000
7	1	Nathan Aspinall	£515,000
8	1	Gerwyn Price	£505,000
9		Damon Heta	£484,500
10	1	Stephen Bunting	£473,250
11	1	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£469,000
12		Danny Noppert	£446,750
13		Chris Dobey	£432,250
14	1	Peter Wright	£417,500
15	4	Josh Rock	£415,250
16	2	James Wade	£413,000
17	1	Ryan Searle	£410,250
18		Luke Littler	£405,000
19	2	Joe Cullen	£404,250
20		Gary Anderson	£389,000
21		Andrew Gilding	£380,500
22		Ross Smith	£380,000
23		Martin Schindler	£375,000
24		Dirk van Duijvenbode	£346,500
25		Mike De Decker	£328,750
26		Daryl Gurney	£319,250
27		Raymond van Barneveld	£312,250
28		Gabriel Clemens	£304,250
29		Ritchie Edhouse	£272,500
30	1	Krzysztof Ratajski	£271,250
31	1	Brendan Dolan	£271,000
32		Gian van Veen	£252,500
*Change since 27 October 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 31 October 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33		Ricardo Pietreczko	£250,750
34		Luke Woodhouse	£247,750
35		Ryan Joyce	£232,250
36		Scott Williams	£208,750
37		Jermaine Wattimena	£201,500
38		José de Sousa	£179,000
39		Kim Huybrechts	£162,000
40	1	Cameron Menzies	£159,000
41	1	Callan Rydz	£154,000
42		Alan Soutar	£137,500
43		Madars Razma	£134,250
44		Ricky Evans	£131,750
45		Martin Lukeman	£128,500
46		Jim Williams	£128,250
47		William O'Connor	£114,000
48	1	Richard Veenstra	£112,250
49		Kevin Doets	£111,000
50	2	Keane Barry	£109,750
51	1	Matt Campbell	£105,500
52	1	Niels Zonneveld	£103,750
53	2	Steve Beaton	£99,000
53	1	Simon Whitlock	£99,000
55	1	Florian Hempel	£96,500
56	1	Mickey Mansell	£95,750
57		Mensur Suljović	£95,250
58	1	Boris Krčmar	£85,000
59	1	Ian White	£84,750
60		Mervyn King	£82,000
61		Jamie Hughes	£77,750
62	2	Wessel Nijman	£77,000
63		Ryan Meikle	£74,500
64	2	Adam Gawlas	£73,750
*Change since 27 October 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 31 October 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65		Lee Evans	£66,750
66	1	Vincent van der Voort	£66,000
67	1	Dylan Slevin	£65,500
68		Stephen Burton	£64,000
69		Karel Sedláček	£60,750
70	1	Maik Kuivenhoven	£56,500
71	1	Rowby-John Rodriguez	£56,250
72		Jeffrey de Zwaan	£51,000
73		Wesley Plaisier	£48,000
74		Daniel Klose	£47,250
75		Robert Owen	£45,250
76		Nick Kenny	£43,750
77		Keegan Brown	£42,750
78		Jeffrey Sparidaans	£41,500
79	1	Graham Hall	£39,500
79		Dom Taylor	£39,500
81		Arron Monk	£37,750
82	1	Thibault Tricole	£35,750
83	1	Connor Scutt	£34,000
84	1	Graham Usher	£32,250
84	1	Jurjen van der Velde	£32,250
86		Jeffrey de Graaf	£30,000
87	3	Chris Landman	£28,750
88		James Hurrell	£27,750
89	2	Pascal Rupprecht	£26,500
90	1	Adrian Lewis	£25,000
91	1	Mario Vandenbogaerde	£24,500
91	1	Andy Baetens	£24,500
93	1	Josh Payne	£23,500
93	2	Berry van Peer	£23,500
95	1	Nathan Rafferty	£22,250
96	9	Steve Lennon	£22,000
97	3	Radek Szagański	£21,750
98	3	Lukas Wenig	£21,500
99	2	Owen Roelofs	£21,000
100	2	Danny van Trijp	£20,500
101	2	Callum Goffin	£20,250
102	2	Christian Kist	£19,750
103	2	Adam Warner	£19,500
104	5	Patrick Geeraets	£19,000
104	2	Matthew Dennant	£19,000
104	2	Geert Nentjes	£19,000
107	9	Darren Beveridge	£18,750
107	3	Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
109	1	Jitse Van der Wal	£18,250
110	1	Benjamin Reus	£18,000
111	4	Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
112	1	Andy Boulton	£17,000
112	3	Danny Lauby	£17,000
114		Robert Grundy	£16,500
115	3	Robbie Knops	£16,250
116	2	Christian Perez	£15,500
117	2	George Killington	£14,500
118	1	Owen Bates	£14,000
119	1	Brett Claydon	£13,750
120	2	Martijn Dragt	£13,500
120	1	Adam Hunt	£13,500
122	6	Darryl Pilgrim	£13,000
122	1	Rhys Griffin	£13,000
124	1	Stefan Bellmont	£12,500
124	2	Danny Jansen	£12,500
124	2	Haupai Puha	£12,500
127		Jelle Klaasen	£11,750
128	2	William Borland	£11,500
128	3	Leighton Bennett	£11,500
130	2	Franz Rötzsch	£10,500
131	2	Lee Cocks	£10,000
131	1	Cameron Crabtree	£10,000
133	1	John Henderson	£8,500
134	4	Jacques Labre	£8,250
134	2	Kai Gotthardt	£8,250
136	4	Richie Burnett	£7,500
136	2	Paul Krohne	£7,500
136	2	Tim Wolters	£7,500
136	2	Joshua Richardson	£7,500
140	1	Justin Hood	£7,000
141		Michele Turetta	£6,000
142		Jamie Atkins	£5,500
143		Jimmy van Schie	£5,000
143		Sebastian Białecki	£5,000
145		Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
146		Ted Evetts	£4,500
146		Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
148		Pavel Drtil	£4,000
148		Jules van Dongen	£4,000
150		Marko Kantele	£3,750
150		Cor Dekker	£3,750
150		Johan Engström	£3,750
150		Kevin Troppmann	£3,750
150		Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
155		Jiri Brejcha	£2,500
155		Anton Östlund	£2,500
155		Bruno Stöckli	£2,500
155		Roger Hertig	£2,500
155		Shane McGuirk	£2,500
155		Alberto Bezjian	£2,500
155		Max Hopp	£2,500
155		Niko Springer	£2,500
155		Matthias Ehlers	£2,500
155		Jan Dueckers	£2,500
155		Marvin van Velzen	£2,500
155		Moreno Blom	£2,500
155		Moritz Hilger	£2,500
155		Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
155		Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
155		Leonard Gates	£2,500
155		Scott Mitchell	£2,500
172		Dragutin Horvat	£2,250
172		René Eidams	£2,250
174		Aden Kirk	£2,000
174		Thomas Lovely	£2,000
176		Jarred Cole	£1,500
176		Joe Croft	£1,500
176		Michael Taylor	£1,500
179		Daniel Markovsky	£1,250
179		Michal Smejda	£1,250
179		Patrik Kovács	£1,250
179		Alex Fehlmann	£1,250
179		Marcel Walpen	£1,250
179		Nándor Prés	£1,250
179		András Csóka	£1,250
179		György Jehirszki	£1,250
179		János Végső	£1,250
179		Brian Raman	£1,250
179		François Schweyen	£1,250
179		Jody Tobback	£1,250
179		Luc Bogaert	£1,250
179		Krzysztof Kciuk	£1,250
179		Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
179		Nico Blum	£1,250
179		Damian Mol	£1,250
179		Teemu Harju	£1,250
179		Christopher Toonders	£1,250
179		Daniel Larsson	£1,250
179		Christian Gödl	£1,250
179		Dominik Haberl	£1,250
179		Hannes Schnier	£1,250
179		Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
179		Arno Merk	£1,250
179		Alexander Mašek	£1,250
179		Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
179		Oliver Mueller	£1,250
179		Viktor Tingström	£1,250
179		Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
179		Born Van Put	£1,250
179		Geert De Vos	£1,250
179		Jeroen Caron	£1,250
179		Steven Strobbe	£1,250
213		Dominik Grüllich	£1,000
213		Alexander Merkx	£1,000
213		Stefaan Henderyck	£1,000
213		Reece Colley	£1,000
213		Bradley Brooks	£1,000
213		Harry Lane	£1,000
213		Jack Male	£1,000
213		Jenson Walker	£1,000
213		Johnny Haines	£1,000
213		Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
213		Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 27 October 2024.

In addition to the main two-year Order of Merit, the PDC also operates secondary Orders of Merit for their different tours. These include the:

• ProTour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Players Championships and European Tour events over a 12-month rolling period. In addition to qualification for televised tournaments, this ranking determines the seedings for Pro Tour events.^[3]
• European Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in European Tour events during the calendar year. The top 32 on this ranking list comprise the qualifiers for the European Championship, all seeded, at the end of the year.^[4]
• Players Championship Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Player Championship events during the calendar year. The top 64 on this ranking list are the seeded qualifiers to the Players Championship Finals.^[5]
• Challenge Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Challenge Tour (by non Tour Card holders that participated in Q-School) during the calendar year. The top players at the end of the year qualify for the World Championship, UK Open, and receive Tour Cards.^[6]
• Development Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Development Tour (by Tour Card holders and non Tour Card holders alike, aged 16–23) during the calendar year. The top players at the end of the year qualify for the World Championship, UK Open, and receive Tour Cards.^[7]
• Women's Series Order of Merit, which was introduced in 2021 after the first women's series events were introduced in 2020.^[8] The tournament series qualifies two women to the Grand Slam, and World Championship.^[9]

The PDC rankings from all orders of merit determine exemptions from the qualifying competitions and seedings for all televised events. Additionally, the orders of merit are used to offer tour cards for the following year.

The PDC holds a variety of ranked and unranked televised tournaments throughout the year. There are an additional selection of ranked floor and streamed tournaments that comprise the PDC Pro Tour, as well as unranked secondary tours and events such as the Challenge Tour, Development Tour, and event qualifiers. Money earned in all ranking events counts toward the Order of Merit, with none counting from the unranked events.^[8]

PDC Ranking Tournaments with Payouts^[8]

Tournament	Prize money
	Total	Champion	Runner-up	Semi-finalists	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 64	Top 96	Top 128
Ranked televised events
World Championship	£2,500,000	£500,000	£200,000	£100,000	£50,000	£35,000	£25,000	£15,000	£7,500	—
UK Open	£600,000	£110,000	£50,000	£30,000	£15,000	£10,000	£5,000	£2,500	£1,500	£1,000
World Matchplay	£800,000	£200,000	£100,000	£50,000	£30,000	£15,000	£10,000	—
World Grand Prix	£600,000	£120,000	£60,000	£40,000	£25,000	£15,000	£7,500	—
European Championship	£600,000	£120,000	£60,000	£40,000	£25,000	£15,000	£7,500	—
Grand Slam of Darts[A]	£650,000	£150,000	£70,000	£50,000	£25,000	£12,250	£5,000[B]	—
Players Championship Finals	£600,000	£120,000	£60,000	£30,000	£20,000	£10,000	£6,500	£3,000	—
PDC Pro Tour[C]
13 European Tour events	£175,000	£30,000	£12,000	£8,500	£6,000	£4,000	£2,500[D]	£1,250[E]	—
30 Players Championship events	£125,000	£15,000	£10,000	£5,000	£3,500	£2,500	£1,500	£1,000	—
Total yearly ranking payouts	£11,625,000	£2,070,000	£996,000	£1,141,000	£1,432,000	£1,822,000	£2,208,000	£1,636,000	£288,000	£32,000

Unranked Tournaments

The PDC operates additional unranked tournaments for tour card holders and occasional qualifiers throughout the year. This includes five televised premier invitational events comprising the Premier League, Champions League of Darts, World Series of Darts Finals, The Masters, and the World Cup of Darts pairs event.^[10][11] Although none of these events count toward the Order of Merit, they all award some number of tournament spots based on Order of Merit position. Additionally there are usually five to seven World Series of Darts events scheduled across the globe each year with eight top PDC players seeded over eight local qualifiers.^[8]

Secondary Tours and Tournaments

The PDC also offers secondary tours that do not count toward the main Order of Merit, but do each include their own confined orders of merit. The Challenge Tour is open to any players who played at the most recent Q-School but failed to earn a tour card. Throughout the year, the top players on the Challenge Tour OoM are invited to fill openings on the Pro Tour, receive invitations to the World Championship and UK Open, and at the end of the year receive tour cards for the next two years.^[8]

The Development Tour is open to players outside of the top 32 on the main Order of Merit who are between the ages of 16 and 23. Similarly to the Challenge Tour, the top players on the Development Tour order of merit receive tour cards and invitations to the UK Open and World Championship. Additionally, 96 players - comprising 16 invitations, tour card holders of the appropriate age, and Development Tour competitors - partake in the World Youth Championship. Although this championship does not count toward any order of merit, there is a £60,000 payout, and the finalists receive tour cards as well as berths in the Grand Slam and World Championship.^[8]

Under the previous ranking points system, Colin Lloyd was the world number one player in the PDC for most of 2005 and 2006, despite most of the major titles being shared between Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and John Part. Although Lloyd also won two major titles, he often accumulated ranking points in the less prestigious non-televised events, in which Taylor did not always compete. Similarly, Alan Warriner was world number one on four occasions before ever winning his first and only PDC major, the 2001 Grand Prix, while Taylor won eight world championships and a host of other titles during that period.

PDC Ranking Leaders Timeline^[12]

13 players have held the position of World Number One since the World Darts Council started new rankings in 1993. Seven different players held the position in the old points system, and seven players have held the position since the PDC switched to the two-year earnings based Order of Merit system in 2007, with Phil Taylor being the only player to have been number one in both eras.

Player	#	Years in which player stood Number 1
Phil Taylor	13	1996 2000 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Michael van Gerwen	7	2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Alan Warriner	6	1993 1994 1997 1998 2001 2002
Rod Harrington	5	1995 1996 1998 1999 2000
Colin Lloyd	3	2005 2006 2007
Dennis Priestley	2	1994 1995
Peter Manley	2	2000 2001
Gerwyn Price	2	2021 2022
Raymond van Barneveld	1	2008
John Part	1	2003
Peter Wright	1	2022
Michael Smith	1	2023
Luke Humphries	1	2024
Italic indicates the player was reigning world champion that year Bold indicates the player stood number one at the conclusion of that year's world championship

No.	Player(s)	From		Length	Ref.
1	Alan Warriner-Little	January 1993	Incarnation of the WDC	674 days[A]	[12]
2	Dennis Priestley	6 November 1994	1994 Lada UK Masters	155	[12][13]
3	Rod Harrington	10 April 1995	1995 UK Matchplay	479 days[A]	[12][13]
4	Phil Taylor	August 1996		31 days[A]	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (2)	September 1996		699 days[A]	[12][13]
	Rod Harrington (2)	1 August 1998	1998 World Matchplay	728 days	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (2)	29 July 2000	2000 World Matchplay	57 days	[12][13]
5	Peter Manley	24 September 2000	2000 Windy City Open	399 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (3)	28 October 2001	2001 World Grand Prix	69 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	5 January 2002	2002 World Championship	28 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (5)	2 February 2002	2002 Eastbourne Open	88 days[A]	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002		248 days[A]	[12][13]
6	John Part	4 January 2003	2003 World Championship	203 days	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (5)	26 July 2003	2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy	582 days	[12][13]
7	Colin Lloyd	27 February 2005	2005 West Tyrone Open	469 days	[14][13]
	Phil Taylor (6)	11 June 2006	2006 UK Open	7 days	[15][16]
	Colin Lloyd (2)	18 June 2006	2006 Players Championship 3	197 days	[16][13]
	Phil Taylor (7)	1 January 2007	2007 World Championship	365 days	[12][13]
8	Raymond van Barneveld	1 January 2008	2008 World Championship	159 days	[17][13]
	Phil Taylor (8)	8 June 2008	2008 UK Open	2,033 days	[17][18]
9	Michael van Gerwen	1 January 2014	2014 World Championship	2,559 days	[18][19]
10	Gerwyn Price	3 January 2021	2021 World Championship	427 days	[19][20]
11	Peter Wright	6 March 2022	2022 UK Open	140 days	[20][21]
	Gerwyn Price (2)	24 July 2022	2022 World Matchplay	77 days	[21]
	Peter Wright (2)	9 October 2022	2022 World Grand Prix	21 days	[22]
	Gerwyn Price (3)	30 October 2022	2022 European Championship	65 days	[22][23]
12	Michael Smith	3 January 2023	2023 World Championship	365 days	[23]
13	Luke Humphries	3 January 2024	2024 World Championship	316 days

Key

Following the World Darts Council (now PDC) split from the British Darts Organisation during 1992-94 the WDC drew up its first ranking list in the run-up to its inaugural 1994 World Championship. Mike Gregory and Chris Johns later went back to the BDO set up and Bobby George and many of the non-UK players never competed in the early days of the WDC.^{[citation needed]}

Ranking	Player		Ranking	Player
1	Alan Warriner		16	Jann Hoffmann
2	Rod Harrington		=	Chris Johns
3	Phil Taylor		=	Roland Scholten
4	John Lowe		19	Raymond van Barneveld
5	Mike Gregory		=	Keith Deller
6	Peter Evison		21	Bobby George
7	Kevin Spiolek		22	Per Skau
=	Dennis Priestley		23	Bernd Hebecker
9	Bob Anderson		=	Andree Welge
10	Jocky Wilson		=	Pascal Rabau
11	Jamie Harvey		26	Leo Laurens
12	Eric Bristow		=	Bert Vlaardingerbroek
13	Cliff Lazarenko		=	Tom Kirby
14	Magnus Caris		=	Wayne Weening
=	Steve Beaton		=	Mauro Levy

• Professional Darts Corporation

• Official PDC Order of Merit