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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.^[1]

How it works[edit]

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 Top 64 Order of Merit[edit]

PDC Order of Merit as of 23 June 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,492,250
2		Michael van Gerwen	£1,064,500
3		Michael Smith	£1,031,500
4		Gerwyn Price	£617,250
5		Nathan Aspinall	£606,500
6		Rob Cross	£595,500
7	1	Dave Chisnall	£527,000
8	1	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£499,750
9	1	Peter Wright	£493,000
10	1	Jonny Clayton	£490,000
11		Damon Heta	£483,250
12		Danny Noppert	£458,250
13	2	Ross Smith	£426,000
14	1	Chris Dobey	£424,750
15	1	Joe Cullen	£414,250
16		Stephen Bunting	£410,000
17		Dirk van Duijvenbode	£399,750
18		Josh Rock	£372,750
19		Andrew Gilding	£354,000
20		Ryan Searle	£351,500
21		Gary Anderson	£334,250
22		James Wade	£330,250
23		Martin Schindler	£330,000
24		Gabriel Clemens	£314,500
25		Luke Littler	£303,500
26		Krzysztof Ratajski	£289,500
27		Daryl Gurney	£285,500
28		Brendan Dolan	£277,750
29		Raymond van Barneveld	£262,250
30		José de Sousa	£245,500
31		Scott Williams	£199,500
32	1	Gian van Veen	£184,000
*Change since 12 June 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 23 June 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33	1	Ricardo Pietreczko	£183,250
34		Luke Woodhouse	£178,250
35		Madars Razma	£171,000
36		Kim Huybrechts	£165,000
37		Ryan Joyce	£161,500
38	1	Callan Rydz	£158,750
39	1	Martin Lukeman	£156,500
40		Mike De Decker	£155,750
41		Alan Soutar	£133,250
42		Jermaine Wattimena	£129,750
43		Ricky Evans	£121,750
44		Jim Williams	£120,750
45		William O'Connor	£113,000
46		Ritchie Edhouse	£111,750
47		Matt Campbell	£107,500
48		Steve Beaton	£107,000
49		Simon Whitlock	£106,500
50		Cameron Menzies	£105,500
51		Keane Barry	£102,500
52		Kevin Doets	£101,000
53		Richard Veenstra	£95,000
53		Rowby-John Rodriguez	£95,000
55		Mickey Mansell	£93,250
56		Mensur Suljović	£88,750
57		Boris Krčmar	£87,250
58	1	Jamie Hughes	£84,250
59	1	Florian Hempel	£83,750
60	1	Ryan Meikle	£83,500
61	1	Ian White	£82,500
62		Vincent van der Voort	£81,500
63		Mervyn King	£77,250
64		Adrian Lewis	£75,500
*Change since 12 June 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 23 June 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65		Niels Zonneveld	£75,250
66		Adam Gawlas	£71,500
67		Lee Evans	£57,750
68		Dylan Slevin	£55,500
69		Stephen Burton	£42,000
70	3	Karel Sedláček	£41,250
70		Daniel Klose	£41,250
70		Maik Kuivenhoven	£41,250
73	1	Jeffrey de Zwaan	£40,500
74		Keegan Brown	£36,750
75		Jeffrey Sparidaans	£30,500
76		Arron Monk	£29,750
77		Graham Hall	£28,750
78		Robert Owen	£26,000
79		Nick Kenny	£25,250
80		Jurjen van der Velde	£24,250
81		Pascal Rupprecht	£24,000
82		Graham Usher	£23,250
83	2	Dom Taylor	£21,000
84	4	Jeffrey de Graaf	£20,000
85	2	Josh Payne	£19,000
86	2	Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
87	1	Geert Nentjes	£18,000
88	1	Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
89	3	Andy Baetens	£17,500
90	1	Wessel Nijman	£16,500
91	1	Owen Roelofs	£15,500
92	1	James Hurrell	£15,250
93		Thibault Tricole	£14,750
94		Berry van Peer	£14,500
95		Robbie Knops	£14,250
96		Danny van Trijp	£14,000
97		Christian Perez	£13,500
98		Adam Warner	£12,000
99		Lukas Wenig	£11,750
99		Chris Landman	£11,750
101		Mario Vandenbogaerde	£11,500
102		Danny Lauby	£11,000
102		Steve Lennon	£11,000
104		Callum Goffin	£10,750
105		Franz Rötzsch	£10,500
105		Leighton Bennett	£10,500
107		Danny Jansen	£10,000
107		Patrick Geeraets	£10,000
109	9	Owen Bates	£9,500
110	3	Radek Szagański	£8,750
111	2	Haupai Puha	£8,500
112	2	George Killington	£8,000
112	4	Matthew Dennant	£8,000
112	2	Benjamin Reus	£8,000
112	2	Brett Claydon	£8,000
116	3	Robert Grundy	£7,500
117	2	Jelle Klaasen	£7,000
118	1	Jacques Labre	£6,250
119	10	Nathan Rafferty	£5,750
120	2	Rhys Griffin	£5,500
120	2	Connor Scutt	£5,500
120	2	Paul Krohne	£5,500
120	2	Darren Beveridge	£5,500
120	2	Stefan Bellmont	£5,500
120	2	Joshua Richardson	£5,500
126	1	Wesley Plaisier	£5,000
127	1	Kai Gotthardt	£4,750
127	1	Jitse Van der Wal	£4,750
127	1	Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
130	1	Tim Wolters	£4,500
130	1	Adam Hunt	£4,500
130	1	Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
133		William Borland	£4,000
133		Michele Turetta	£4,000
133		John Henderson	£4,000
136	20	Kevin Troppmann	£3,750
136		Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
138	1	Richie Burnett	£3,500
139	1	Jules van Dongen	£3,000
140	1	Cameron Crabtree	£2,500
140	1	Marvin van Velzen	£2,500
140	1	Moreno Blom	£2,500
140	16	Jan Dueckers	£2,500
140	1	Lee Cocks	£2,500
140	1	Moritz Hilger	£2,500
140	1	Sebastian Białecki	£2,500
140	1	Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
140	1	Johan Engström	£2,500
140	1	Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
140	1	Leonard Gates	£2,500
140	1	Scott Mitchell	£2,500
152	2	Thomas Lovely	£2,000
153	2	Andy Boulton	£1,500
153	2	Martijn Dragt	£1,500
153	2	Jarred Cole	£1,500
153	2	Joe Croft	£1,500
153	2	Michael Taylor	£1,500
158		Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
158		Marko Kantele	£1,250
158		Nico Blum	£1,250
158	2	Christian Kist	£1,250
158	2	Damian Mol	£1,250
158	2	Jiri Brejcha	£1,250
158	2	Teemu Harju	£1,250
158	2	Christopher Toonders	£1,250
158	2	Daniel Larsson	£1,250
158	2	Christian Gödl	£1,250
158	2	Dominik Haberl	£1,250
158	2	Hannes Schnier	£1,250
158	2	Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
158	2	Arno Merk	£1,250
158	2	Niko Springer	£1,250
158	2	René Eidams	£1,250
158	2	Alexander Mašek	£1,250
158	2	Cor Dekker	£1,250
158	2	Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
158	2	Matthias Ehlers	£1,250
158	2	Oliver Mueller	£1,250
158	2	Viktor Tingström	£1,250
158	2	Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
158	2	Born Van Put	£1,250
158	2	Geert De Vos	£1,250
158	2	Jeroen Caron	£1,250
158	2	Steven Strobbe	£1,250
185	3	Jamie Atkins	£1,000
185	3	Shane McGuirk	£1,000
185	3	Darryl Pilgrim	£1,000
185	3	Aden Kirk	£1,000
185	3	Bradley Brooks	£1,000
185	3	Harry Lane	£1,000
185	3	Jack Male	£1,000
185	3	Jenson Walker	£1,000
185	3	Johnny Haines	£1,000
185	3	Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
185	3	Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 12 June 2024.

Secondary Orders of Merit[edit]

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[edit]

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.

Ranking Tournaments[edit]

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]

Previous world ranking system[edit]

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[edit]

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

Periods[edit]

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	173 days

Key

Total Days at No. 1[edit]

First WDC/PDC rankings[edit]

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

See also[edit]

• Professional Darts Corporation

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official PDC Order of Merit