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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.

How it works

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

PDC Order of Merit as of 16 October 2024.

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,732,750
2		Michael Smith	£1,074,250
3		Michael van Gerwen	£918,000
4		Rob Cross	£620,500
5		Dave Chisnall	£573,250
6		Jonny Clayton	£530,500
7		Gerwyn Price	£523,500
8		Nathan Aspinall	£510,750
9		Ross Smith	£496,250
10		Damon Heta	£495,250
11		Dimitri Van den Bergh	£479,750
12		Stephen Bunting	£470,000
13		Chris Dobey	£461,750
14		Peter Wright	£438,500
15		Josh Rock	£429,500
16		Danny Noppert	£424,250
17		James Wade	£416,750
18		Joe Cullen	£407,250
19		Ryan Searle	£403,000
20		Luke Littler	£389,000
21		Martin Schindler	£375,750
22	1	Andrew Gilding	£372,500
23	1	Gary Anderson	£371,000
24		Dirk van Duijvenbode	£364,250
25		Mike De Decker	£313,250
26		Daryl Gurney	£309,250
27		Raymond van Barneveld	£302,750
28		Gabriel Clemens	£300,500
29		Krzysztof Ratajski	£277,000
30		Brendan Dolan	£275,250
31		Gian van Veen	£239,500
32		Ryan Joyce	£233,750
*Change since 13 October 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 16 October 2024.

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33		Ricardo Pietreczko	£226,000
34		Scott Williams	£213,000
35		Luke Woodhouse	£206,250
36		José de Sousa	£194,000
37		Callan Rydz	£159,000
38		Kim Huybrechts	£155,000
39		Ritchie Edhouse	£150,500
40		Cameron Menzies	£147,250
41	1	Jermaine Wattimena	£144,500
42	1	Alan Soutar	£143,000
43		Madars Razma	£138,750
44		Martin Lukeman	£135,250
45		Ricky Evans	£132,500
46		Jim Williams	£129,750
47		William O'Connor	£114,250
48	4	Keane Barry	£110,750
49	1	Kevin Doets	£110,500
50		Steve Beaton	£110,250
51		Richard Veenstra	£109,750
51	2	Matt Campbell	£109,750
53		Simon Whitlock	£103,000
54		Mickey Mansell	£98,750
55		Florian Hempel	£96,250
56	1	Mensur Suljović	£94,500
57	1	Niels Zonneveld	£92,250
58		Boris Krčmar	£87,250
59	1	Mervyn King	£85,000
60	1	Ian White	£84,500
61	1	Ryan Meikle	£83,250
62	2	Jamie Hughes	£82,500
63	1	Adam Gawlas	£76,250
63		Vincent van der Voort	£76,250
*Change since 13 October 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 16 October 2024.

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65	2	Wessel Nijman	£72,500
66	1	Rowby-John Rodriguez	£68,750
67	1	Lee Evans	£66,750
68		Dylan Slevin	£64,500
69		Stephen Burton	£63,000
70		Karel Sedláček	£59,750
71		Maik Kuivenhoven	£54,250
72		Jeffrey de Zwaan	£51,000
73	9	Wesley Plaisier	£46,500
74	1	Daniel Klose	£45,250
75	1	Robert Owen	£43,000
76	1	Nick Kenny	£42,750
77	2	Keegan Brown	£41,750
78	1	Jeffrey Sparidaans	£40,500
79	1	Dom Taylor	£39,500
80	1	Graham Hall	£37,000
81	1	Arron Monk	£34,250
82	1	Connor Scutt	£32,500
83		Thibault Tricole	£32,250
83		Jurjen van der Velde	£32,250
85	2	Graham Usher	£31,250
86	1	Jeffrey de Graaf	£29,000
87	1	Adrian Lewis	£28,750
88		Pascal Rupprecht	£26,500
89		James Hurrell	£26,250
90	1	Chris Landman	£23,750
91	1	Berry van Peer	£23,500
92	1	Mario Vandenbogaerde	£23,000
92	2	Andy Baetens	£23,000
94		Josh Payne	£22,500
95	1	Lukas Wenig	£21,500
96	2	Nathan Rafferty	£21,250
97	2	Owen Roelofs	£21,000
98	2	Danny van Trijp	£20,500
99	1	Callum Goffin	£20,250
100	4	Christian Kist	£19,750
100	3	Radek Szagański	£19,750
102	4	Matthew Dennant	£19,000
102	3	Geert Nentjes	£19,000
104	4	Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
105	1	Steve Lennon	£18,500
105	3	Adam Warner	£18,500
107	3	Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
108	3	Jitse Van der Wal	£17,250
109	6	Danny Lauby	£17,000
109	3	Benjamin Reus	£17,000
109		Patrick Geeraets	£17,000
112	4	Robbie Knops	£16,250
113	4	Andy Boulton	£16,000
114	1	Robert Grundy	£15,500
114	2	Christian Perez	£15,500
116	2	Darren Beveridge	£15,250
117		Owen Bates	£14,000
118	9	George Killington	£13,500
118	7	Adam Hunt	£13,500
120	3	Rhys Griffin	£13,000
121	2	Martijn Dragt	£12,500
121	1	Brett Claydon	£12,500
121	2	Danny Jansen	£12,500
121	2	Haupai Puha	£12,500
125	3	Stefan Bellmont	£11,500
125	3	Leighton Bennett	£11,500
127	3	Jelle Klaasen	£10,750
128	4	Darryl Pilgrim	£10,500
128	2	Franz Rötzsch	£10,500
130	3	William Borland	£10,000
130	3	Cameron Crabtree	£10,000
132	1	Kai Gotthardt	£8,250
133	7	Lee Cocks	£8,000
134	2	Tim Wolters	£7,500
134	2	Paul Krohne	£7,500
134	1	John Henderson	£7,500
134	1	Joshua Richardson	£7,500
138	3	Jacques Labre	£7,250
139	1	Justin Hood	£7,000
140		Richie Burnett	£6,500
141	3	Michele Turetta	£6,000
142	2	Jamie Atkins	£5,500
143	8	Jimmy van Schie	£5,000
143		Sebastian Białecki	£5,000
145	1	Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
146	5	Ted Evetts	£4,500
146	1	Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
148	2	Jules van Dongen	£4,000
149	2	Cor Dekker	£3,750
149	2	Johan Engström	£3,750
149	2	Kevin Troppmann	£3,750
149	2	Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
153		Anton Östlund	£2,500
153		Bruno Stöckli	£2,500
153		Roger Hertig	£2,500
153		Shane McGuirk	£2,500
153		Alberto Bezjian	£2,500
153		Marko Kantele	£2,500
153		Max Hopp	£2,500
153		Niko Springer	£2,500
153		Matthias Ehlers	£2,500
153		Jan Dueckers	£2,500
153		Marvin van Velzen	£2,500
153		Moreno Blom	£2,500
153		Moritz Hilger	£2,500
153		Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
153		Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
153		Leonard Gates	£2,500
153		Scott Mitchell	£2,500
170		Dragutin Horvat	£2,250
170		René Eidams	£2,250
172		Aden Kirk	£2,000
172		Thomas Lovely	£2,000
174		Jarred Cole	£1,500
174		Joe Croft	£1,500
174		Michael Taylor	£1,500
177		Alex Fehlmann	£1,250
177		Marcel Walpen	£1,250
177		Nándor Prés	£1,250
177		András Csóka	£1,250
177		György Jehirszki	£1,250
177		János Végső	£1,250
177		Brian Raman	£1,250
177		François Schweyen	£1,250
177		Jody Tobback	£1,250
177		Luc Bogaert	£1,250
177		Krzysztof Kciuk	£1,250
177		Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
177		Nico Blum	£1,250
177		Damian Mol	£1,250
177		Jiri Brejcha	£1,250
177		Teemu Harju	£1,250
177		Christopher Toonders	£1,250
177		Daniel Larsson	£1,250
177		Christian Gödl	£1,250
177		Dominik Haberl	£1,250
177		Hannes Schnier	£1,250
177		Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
177		Arno Merk	£1,250
177		Alexander Mašek	£1,250
177		Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
177		Oliver Mueller	£1,250
177		Viktor Tingström	£1,250
177		Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
177		Born Van Put	£1,250
177		Geert De Vos	£1,250
177		Jeroen Caron	£1,250
177		Steven Strobbe	£1,250
209		Dominik Grüllich	£1,000
209		Alexander Merkx	£1,000
209		Stefaan Henderyck	£1,000
209		Reece Colley	£1,000
209		Bradley Brooks	£1,000
209		Harry Lane	£1,000
209		Jack Male	£1,000
209		Jenson Walker	£1,000
209		Johnny Haines	£1,000
209		Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
209		Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 13 October 2024.

Secondary Orders of Merit

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Women's Series Order of Merit, which was introduced in 2021 after the first women's series events were introduced in 2020. The tournament series qualifies two women to the Grand Slam, and World Championship.

Player exemptions and seedings

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

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
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)	—					32
Players Championship events	TCH	0 (32)	—
Non-ranked televised events
The Masters	24 (24)	—
Premier League Darts	4	—						4
Champions League of Darts	8 (8)	—
Tour Cards	64	—			2	2	—	var

Ranking Tournaments

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.

PDC Ranking Tournaments with Payouts

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	£650,000	£150,000	£70,000	£50,000	£25,000	£12,250	£5,000	—
Players Championship Finals	£600,000	£120,000	£60,000	£30,000	£20,000	£10,000	£6,500	£3,000	—
PDC Pro Tour
13 European Tour events	£175,000	£30,000	£12,000	£8,500	£6,000	£4,000	£2,500	£1,250	—
30 Players Championship events	£100,000	£12,000	£8,000	£4,000	£3,000	£2,000	£1,250	£750	—
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. 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.

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.

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.

Previous world ranking system

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

PDC Ranking Leaders Timeline

12 players have held the position of World Number One since the World Darts Council started new rankings in 1993. Only Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Michael Smith have held the position since the PDC switched to the two-year earnings based Order of Merit system in 2007.

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

No.	Player(s)	From		Length	Ref.
1	Alan Warriner-Little	January 1993	Incarnation of the WDC	674 days
2	Dennis Priestley	6 November 1994	1994 Lada UK Masters	155
3	Rod Harrington	10 April 1995	1995 UK Matchplay	479 days
4	Phil Taylor	August 1996		31 days
	Alan Warriner-Little (2)	September 1996		699 days
	Rod Harrington (2)	1 August 1998	1998 World Matchplay	728 days
	Phil Taylor (2)	29 July 2000	2000 World Matchplay	57 days
5	Peter Manley	24 September 2000	2000 Windy City Open	399 days
	Alan Warriner-Little (3)	28 October 2001	2001 World Grand Prix	69 days
	Alan Warriner-Little (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	5 January 2002	2002 World Championship	28 days
	Alan Warriner-Little (5)	2 February 2002	2002 Eastbourne Open	88 days
	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002		248 days
6	John Part	4 January 2003	2003 World Championship	203 days
	Phil Taylor (5)	26 July 2003	2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy	582 days
7	Colin Lloyd	27 February 2005	2005 West Tyrone Open	469 days
	Phil Taylor (6)	11 June 2006	2006 UK Open	7 days
	Colin Lloyd (2)	18 June 2006	2006 Players Championship 3	197 days
	Phil Taylor (7)	1 January 2007	2007 World Championship	365 days
8	Raymond van Barneveld	1 January 2008	2008 World Championship	159 days
	Phil Taylor (8)	8 June 2008	2008 UK Open	2,033 days
9	Michael van Gerwen	1 January 2014	2014 World Championship	2,559 days
10	Gerwyn Price	3 January 2021	2021 World Championship	427 days
11	Peter Wright	6 March 2022	2022 UK Open	140 days
	Gerwyn Price (2)	24 July 2022	2022 World Matchplay	77 days
	Peter Wright (2)	9 October 2022	2022 World Grand Prix	21 days
	Gerwyn Price (3)	30 October 2022	2022 European Championship	65 days
12	Michael Smith	3 January 2023	2023 World Championship	365 days
13	Luke Humphries	3 January 2024	2024 World Championship	290 days

Key

Before January 2007	Used old points system
Current	Reigning number one on Order of Merit

First WDC/PDC rankings

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.

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

• Professional Darts Corporation

External links

• Official PDC Order of Merit