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PDC Order of Merit

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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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.[1]

Methodology

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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

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PDC Order of Merit as of 12 January 2025.[2]
Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank Change Player Earnings
1 Steady  Luke Humphries £1,804,250
2 Steady  Luke Littler £1,118,500
3 Steady  Michael van Gerwen £815,500
4 Steady  Rob Cross £551,750
5 Steady  Stephen Bunting £536,000
6 Steady  Dave Chisnall £528,500
7 Steady  Jonny Clayton £494,000
8 Steady  Damon Heta £484,000
9 Steady  Gerwyn Price £480,500
10 Steady  Chris Dobey £480,250
11 Steady  Nathan Aspinall £470,500
12 Steady  Peter Wright £442,500
13 Steady  Danny Noppert £431,750
14 Steady  Gary Anderson £430,500
15 Steady  James Wade £426,750
16 Steady  Josh Rock £405,000
16 Steady  Michael Smith £405,000
18 Steady  Dimitri Van den Bergh £399,250
19 Steady  Ryan Searle £398,250
20 Steady  Andrew Gilding £395,500
21 Steady  Ross Smith £395,000
22 Steady  Martin Schindler £365,000
23 Steady  Joe Cullen £357,250
24 Steady  Mike De Decker £356,000
25 Steady  Daryl Gurney £334,250
26 Steady  Dirk van Duijvenbode £325,750
27 Steady  Gian van Veen £299,000
28 Steady  Ritchie Edhouse £289,250
29 Steady  Ryan Joyce £282,000
30 Steady  Ricardo Pietreczko £280,750
31 Steady  Brendan Dolan £271,500
32 Steady  Krzysztof Ratajski £267,750
*Change since 3 January 2025.
PDC Order of Merit as of 12 January 2025.[2]
Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank Change Player Earnings
33 Steady  Luke Woodhouse £262,750
34 Steady  Raymond van Barneveld £252,750
35 Steady  Jermaine Wattimena £240,250
36 Steady  Scott Williams £220,750
37 Steady  Gabriel Clemens £219,750
38 Steady  Martin Lukeman £202,500
39 Steady  Cameron Menzies £178,000
40 Steady  Callan Rydz £177,000
41 Steady  Kevin Doets £146,500
42 Steady  Madars Razma £144,750
43 Steady  Mickey Mansell £143,250
44 Steady  Ricky Evans £142,250
45 Steady  José de Sousa £139,000
46 Steady  Kim Huybrechts £136,000
47 Steady  Richard Veenstra £122,750
48 Steady  Niels Zonneveld £121,250
49 Steady  Ian White £116,250
50 Steady  Keane Barry £115,250
51 Steady  Jim Williams £111,250
52 Steady  William O'Connor £107,000
53 Steady  Florian Hempel £103,000
53 Steady  Matt Campbell £103,000
55 Steady  Wessel Nijman £100,000
56 Increase 1  Alan Soutar £85,500
57 Increase 1  Dylan Slevin £80,500
58 Increase 1  Robert Owen £80,250
59 Increase 1  Ryan Meikle £78,500
60 Increase 1  Stephen Burton £78,000
61 Increase 1  Connor Scutt £77,000
62 Increase 1  Mensur Suljović £75,250
63 Increase 1  Jeffrey de Graaf £75,000
64 Increase 1  Nick Kenny £71,750
*Change since 3 January 2025.
Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64
PDC Order of Merit as of 12 January 2025.[2]
Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank Change Player Earnings
65 Increase 9  Thibault Tricole £57,250
66 Increase 13  James Hurrell £45,750
67 Increase 15  Dom Taylor £39,500
68 Increase 16  Chris Landman £39,250
69 Increase 20  Mario Vandenbogaerde £31,000
70 Increase 20  Rhys Griffin £28,000
71 Increase 24  Andy Baetens £24,500
72 Increase 24  Berry van Peer £23,500
73 Increase 26  Nathan Rafferty £22,250
74 Increase 26  Steve Lennon £22,000
75 Increase 26  Radek Szagański £21,750
76 Increase 26  Lukas Wenig £21,500
77 Increase 31  Patrick Geeraets £19,000
77 Increase 31  Matthew Dennant £19,000
79 Increase 32  Darren Beveridge £18,750
80 Increase 33  Jitse Van der Wal £18,250
81 Increase 33  Benjamin Reus £18,000
82 Increase 34  Danny Lauby £17,000
83 Increase 35  Robert Grundy £16,500
84 Increase 40  George Killington £14,500
85 Increase 40  Owen Bates £14,000
86 Increase 40  Brett Claydon £13,750
87 Increase 40  Martijn Dragt £13,500
87 Increase 40  Adam Hunt £13,500
89 Increase 41  Haupai Puha £12,500
90 Increase 45  Jelle Klaasen £11,750
91 Increase 45  William Borland £11,500
92 Increase 53  Tim Wolters £7,500
92 Increase 53  Joshua Richardson £7,500
94 Increase 69  Michele Turetta £6,000
95 Increase 75  Jules van Dongen £4,000
*Change since 3 January 2025.

Secondary Orders of Merit

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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]

Player exemptions and seedings

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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.

PDC Order of Merit Exemptions[8]
Tournament Qualifiers (seeds)
By Order of Merit Other
Main PT ET PC CT DT WS
Ranked televised events
World Championship 32 (32) 32 2 2 2 26
World Masters 24 (16)[a] [nb 1] [nb 1] [nb 1] 8[b]
UK Open TCH 8 8 16
World Matchplay 16 (16) 16
World Grand Prix 16 (8) 16
European Championship 32 (32)
Grand Slam of Darts 0 (8) 2 2 2 18
Players Championship Finals 64 (64)
PDC Pro Tour
European Tour events 16 16 (16) 16
Players Championship events TCH 0 (32)
Non-ranked televised events
Premier League Darts 4 4
Champions League of Darts 8 (8)
Tour Cards 64 2 2 var
  1. ^ a b c The top 8 non-tour card holders will enter at the preliminary round group stage
  1. ^ Players Ranked 25–56 will enter at the last 64 of the preliminary round, while Players Ranked 57–88 will be seeded in the preliminary round group stage, and Players Ranked 89–128 will enter at the preliminary rounded group stage non-seeded[10]
  2. ^ The 8 qualifiers from the preliminary round

Ranking tournaments

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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
  1. ^ The Grand Slam pays an additional £3,500 to the 8 group winners.
  2. ^ The Grand Slam pays £8,000 and £5,000 for third and fourth place finishers respectively in the group stage, which comprise the top 32.
  3. ^ The 2020 PDC Pro Tour was reduced to 4 European Tour events and 23 Players Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  4. ^ The 16 seeded players at a European Tour event do not receive money toward OoM for a top 32 finish.
  5. ^ European Tour events pay out to 48 players (the complete field).

Unranked tournaments

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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.[11][12] 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

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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]

Previous world ranking system

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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.

Previous World Number Ones

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PDC Ranking Leaders Timeline[13][14]

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
England Phil Taylor 13
  • 1996
  • 2000
  • 2002
  • 2003
  • 2004
  • 2006
  • 2007
  • 2008
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 7
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • 2016
  • 2017
  • 2018
  • 2019
  • 2020
England Alan Warriner 6
  • 1993
  • 1994
  • 1997
  • 1998
  • 2001
  • 2002
England Rod Harrington 5
  • 1995
  • 1996
  • 1998
  • 1999
  • 2000
England Colin Lloyd 3
  • 2005
  • 2006
  • 2007
England Dennis Priestley 2
  • 1994
  • 1995
England Peter Manley 2
  • 2000
  • 2001
Wales Gerwyn Price 2
  • 2021
  • 2022
England Luke Humphries 2
  • 2024
  • 2025
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 1 2008
Canada John Part 1 2003
Scotland Peter Wright 1 2022
England Michael Smith 1 2023
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

Periods

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No. Player(s) From Length Ref.
1  Alan Warriner-Little January 1993 Incarnation of the WDC 674 days[A] [13]
2  Dennis Priestley 6 November 1994 1994 Lada UK Masters 155 [13][15]
3  Rod Harrington 10 April 1995 1995 UK Matchplay 479 days[A] [13][15]
4  Phil Taylor August 1996 31 days[A] [13][15]
 Alan Warriner-Little (2) September 1996 699 days[A] [13][15]
 Rod Harrington (2) 1 August 1998 1998 World Matchplay 728 days [13][15]
 Phil Taylor (2) 29 July 2000 2000 World Matchplay 57 days [13][15]
5  Peter Manley 24 September 2000 2000 Windy City Open 399 days [13][15]
 Alan Warriner-Little (3) 28 October 2001 2001 World Grand Prix 69 days [13][15]
Alan Warriner-Little (4) and Phil Taylor (3) 5 January 2002 2002 World Championship 28 days [13][15]
 Alan Warriner-Little (5) 2 February 2002 2002 Eastbourne Open 88 days[A] [13][15]
 Phil Taylor (4) May 2002 248 days[A] [13][15]
6  John Part 4 January 2003 2003 World Championship 203 days [13][15]
 Phil Taylor (5) 26 July 2003 2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy 582 days [13][15]
7  Colin Lloyd 27 February 2005 2005 West Tyrone Open 469 days [16][15]
 Phil Taylor (6) 11 June 2006 2006 UK Open 7 days [17][18]
 Colin Lloyd (2) 18 June 2006 2006 Players Championship 3 197 days [18][15]
 Phil Taylor (7) 1 January 2007 2007 World Championship 365 days [13][15]
8  Raymond van Barneveld 1 January 2008 2008 World Championship 159 days [19][15]
 Phil Taylor (8) 8 June 2008 2008 UK Open 2,033 days [19][20]
9  Michael van Gerwen 1 January 2014 2014 World Championship 2,559 days [20][21]
10  Gerwyn Price 3 January 2021 2021 World Championship 427 days [21][22]
11  Peter Wright 6 March 2022 2022 UK Open 140 days [22][23]
 Gerwyn Price (2) 24 July 2022 2022 World Matchplay 77 days [23]
 Peter Wright (2) 9 October 2022 2022 World Grand Prix 21 days [24]
 Gerwyn Price (3) 30 October 2022 2022 European Championship 65 days [24][25]
12  Michael Smith 3 January 2023 2023 World Championship 365 days [25]
13  Luke Humphries 3 January 2024 2024 World Championship 391 days [26][27]
  1. ^ a b c d e f Uses 1st of month where exact date unknown.
Key
Before January 2007 Used old points system
Current Reigning number one on Order of Merit

Total Days at No. 1

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No. Player Total Days at No 1 Longest Consecutive Run
1 Phil Taylor 3323 2033
2 Michael van Gerwen 2559 2559
3 Alan Warriner-Little 1558 699
4 Rod Harrington 1207 728
5 Colin Lloyd 666 469
6 Gerwyn Price 569 427
7 Peter Manley 399 399
8 Luke Humphries 391 391
9 Michael Smith 365 365
10 John Part 203 203
11 Peter Wright 161 140
12 Raymond van Barneveld 159 159
13 Dennis Priestley 155 155
Active players in bold.

First WDC/PDC rankings

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Following the World Darts Council split from the British Darts Organisation between 1992 and 1994, 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 England Alan Warriner 16 Denmark Jann Hoffmann
2 England Rod Harrington = Wales Chris Johns
3 England Phil Taylor = Netherlands Roland Scholten
4 England John Lowe 19 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld
5 England Mike Gregory = England Keith Deller
6 England Peter Evison 21 England Bobby George
7 England Kevin Spiolek 22 Denmark Per Skau
= England Dennis Priestley 23 Germany Bernd Hebecker
9 England Bob Anderson = Germany Andree Welge
10 Scotland Jocky Wilson = Belgium Pascal Rabau
11 Scotland Jamie Harvey 26 Belgium Leo Laurens
12 England Eric Bristow = Netherlands Bert Vlaardingerbroek
13 England Cliff Lazarenko = Republic of Ireland Tom Kirby
14 Sweden Magnus Caris = Australia Wayne Weening
= England Steve Beaton = Finland Mauro Levy

References

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  1. ^ "PDC Rankings". Global Darts. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 12 January 2025. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  3. ^ "ProTour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  4. ^ "2020 European Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Players Championship Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Challenge Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Development Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "PDC Order of Merit Rules". PDC. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  9. ^ "2024 PDC Women's Series Order of Merit". Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  10. ^ Gill, Samuel (25 December 2024). "Format confirmed for 2025 Winmau World Masters including much-loved sets returning". Darts News. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  11. ^ "Champions League of Darts: BBC to broadcast inaugural tournament". BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  12. ^ "2015 Masters held in Milton Keynes". PDC. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "World Number 1 (PDC)". Professional Dart Players Association. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  14. ^ Nicholson, Paul (29 November 2023). "World number ones in darts: Michael Smith joins illustrious list of 12 players to reach the top of the PDC rankings including Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price". Sporting Life. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Darts Database Player Stats". Darts Database. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  16. ^ "Lloydy on top of the World". PDC. 3 August 2005. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  17. ^ "Taylor Regains Number One Spot". PDC. 12 June 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  18. ^ a b "Lloyd Confirmed As Number One". PDC. 20 June 2006.
  19. ^ a b "Taylor Back on Top". PDC. 9 June 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  20. ^ a b Walters, Mike (1 January 2014). "Michael van Gerwen is Ladbrokes PDC World Darts Champion after beating Peter Wright". Mirror. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  21. ^ a b Allen, Dave (4 January 2021). "A number one hit! Price joins exclusive list to top rankings". PDC.
  22. ^ a b "Peter Wright is world number one darts player after Gerwyn Price fails to reach UK Open final". Sporting Life. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  23. ^ a b Gorton, Josh (22 July 2022). "Price denies De Sousa in Winter Gardens thriller to seal semi-final spot". PDC. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  24. ^ a b Gill, Samuel (31 October 2022). "Price regains World Number One spot, Ross Smith into top 20 after maiden major win in updated PDC Order of Merit after European Championship". Darts News. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  25. ^ a b "Michael Smith beats Michael van Gerwen to win first world title with 'best leg of darts ever'". ESPN. 4 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  26. ^ Wood, Kieran (3 January 2024). "Luke Humphries the new world number one after World Darts Championships". Darts News. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  27. ^ Gill, Samuel (4 January 2025). "PDC Order of Merit Update: Luke Littler passes Michael van Gerwen but World Number One out of reach for now". Darts News. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
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