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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.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 17 November 2024.

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,709,250
2	1	Michael van Gerwen	£912,500
3	1	Michael Smith	£886,000
4		Rob Cross	£618,750
5	13	Luke Littler	£558,500
6		Dave Chisnall	£537,000
7	2	Jonny Clayton	£531,000
8	2	Stephen Bunting	£485,500
9	2	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£481,250
10	2	Gerwyn Price	£480,000
11	2	Damon Heta	£476,500
12		Danny Noppert	£446,750
13	7	Gary Anderson	£442,500
14	7	Nathan Aspinall	£441,500
15	2	Chris Dobey	£432,250
16		James Wade	£428,750
17	3	Peter Wright	£414,500
18	3	Josh Rock	£411,000
19	2	Ryan Searle	£405,250
20	1	Andrew Gilding	£380,500
21	1	Ross Smith	£380,000
22	3	Joe Cullen	£379,250
23		Martin Schindler	£375,000
24	1	Mike De Decker	£341,000
25	1	Dirk van Duijvenbode	£330,750
26		Daryl Gurney	£319,250
27	1	Gabriel Clemens	£304,250
28	4	Gian van Veen	£281,000
29		Ritchie Edhouse	£280,250
30		Krzysztof Ratajski	£271,250
31		Brendan Dolan	£271,000
32	5	Raymond van Barneveld	£258,750
*Change since 31 October 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 17 November 2024.

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33		Ricardo Pietreczko	£250,750
34	1	Ryan Joyce	£244,500
35	1	Luke Woodhouse	£239,750
36	1	Jermaine Wattimena	£217,750
37	8	Martin Lukeman	£202,000
38	2	Scott Williams	£200,750
39	1	Cameron Menzies	£184,000
40	2	José de Sousa	£179,000
41	2	Kim Huybrechts	£162,000
42	1	Callan Rydz	£154,000
43	13	Mickey Mansell	£145,750
44	1	Madars Razma	£134,250
45	1	Ricky Evans	£131,750
46		Jim Williams	£128,250
47	3	Keane Barry	£117,750
48	1	William O'Connor	£114,000
49	7	Alan Soutar	£112,500
50	2	Richard Veenstra	£112,250
51	2	Kevin Doets	£111,000
52	1	Matt Campbell	£105,500
53	1	Niels Zonneveld	£103,750
54	1	Steve Beaton	£99,000
55		Florian Hempel	£96,500
56	1	Mensur Suljović	£92,250
57	4	Simon Whitlock	£86,750
58		Boris Krčmar	£85,000
59		Ian White	£84,750
60	2	Wessel Nijman	£82,000
60		Mervyn King	£82,000
62	1	Jamie Hughes	£77,750
63		Ryan Meikle	£74,500
64		Adam Gawlas	£68,750
*Change since 31 October 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 17 November 2024.

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65		Lee Evans	£66,750
66		Vincent van der Voort	£66,000
67		Dylan Slevin	£65,500
68		Stephen Burton	£64,000
69	2	Rowby-John Rodriguez	£61,250
70	1	Karel Sedláček	£60,750
71	1	Maik Kuivenhoven	£56,500
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	5	Connor Scutt	£42,000
79	1	Jeffrey Sparidaans	£41,500
80	1	Graham Hall	£39,500
80	1	Dom Taylor	£39,500
82	1	Arron Monk	£37,750
83	1	Thibault Tricole	£35,750
84		Graham Usher	£32,250
84		Jurjen van der Velde	£32,250
86		Jeffrey de Graaf	£30,000
87		Chris Landman	£28,750
88		James Hurrell	£27,750
89		Pascal Rupprecht	£26,500
90		Adrian Lewis	£25,000
91		Mario Vandenbogaerde	£24,500
91		Andy Baetens	£24,500
93		Josh Payne	£23,500
93		Berry van Peer	£23,500
95		Nathan Rafferty	£22,250
96		Steve Lennon	£22,000
97		Radek Szagański	£21,750
98		Lukas Wenig	£21,500
99		Owen Roelofs	£21,000
100		Danny van Trijp	£20,500
101		Callum Goffin	£20,250
102		Christian Kist	£19,750
103		Adam Warner	£19,500
104		Patrick Geeraets	£19,000
104		Matthew Dennant	£19,000
104		Geert Nentjes	£19,000
107		Darren Beveridge	£18,750
107		Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
109		Jitse Van der Wal	£18,250
110		Benjamin Reus	£18,000
111		Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
112		Andy Boulton	£17,000
112		Danny Lauby	£17,000
114		Robert Grundy	£16,500
115		Robbie Knops	£16,250
116		Christian Perez	£15,500
117		George Killington	£14,500
118		Owen Bates	£14,000
119		Brett Claydon	£13,750
120		Martijn Dragt	£13,500
120		Adam Hunt	£13,500
122		Darryl Pilgrim	£13,000
122		Rhys Griffin	£13,000
124		Stefan Bellmont	£12,500
124		Danny Jansen	£12,500
124		Haupai Puha	£12,500
127		Jelle Klaasen	£11,750
128		William Borland	£11,500
128		Leighton Bennett	£11,500
130	25	Leonard Gates	£10,500
130		Franz Rötzsch	£10,500
132	1	Lee Cocks	£10,000
132	1	Cameron Crabtree	£10,000
134	1	John Henderson	£8,500
135	1	Jacques Labre	£8,250
135	1	Kai Gotthardt	£8,250
137	1	Richie Burnett	£7,500
137	1	Paul Krohne	£7,500
137	1	Tim Wolters	£7,500
137	1	Joshua Richardson	£7,500
141	1	Justin Hood	£7,000
142	1	Michele Turetta	£6,000
143	1	Jamie Atkins	£5,500
144		Beau Greaves	£5,000
144		Lourence Ilagan	£5,000
144		Noa-Lynn van Leuven	£5,000
144	1	Jimmy van Schie	£5,000
144	1	Sebastian Białecki	£5,000
149	4	Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
150	4	Ted Evetts	£4,500
150	4	Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
152	4	Pavel Drtil	£4,000
152	4	Jules van Dongen	£4,000
154	4	Marko Kantele	£3,750
154	4	Cor Dekker	£3,750
154	4	Johan Engström	£3,750
154	4	Kevin Troppmann	£3,750
154	4	Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
159	4	Jiri Brejcha	£2,500
159	4	Anton Östlund	£2,500
159	4	Bruno Stöckli	£2,500
159	4	Roger Hertig	£2,500
159	4	Shane McGuirk	£2,500
159	4	Alberto Bezjian	£2,500
159	4	Max Hopp	£2,500
159	4	Niko Springer	£2,500
159	4	Matthias Ehlers	£2,500
159	4	Jan Dueckers	£2,500
159	4	Marvin van Velzen	£2,500
159	4	Moreno Blom	£2,500
159	4	Moritz Hilger	£2,500
159	4	Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
159	4	Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
159	4	Scott Mitchell	£2,500
175	3	Dragutin Horvat	£2,250
175	3	René Eidams	£2,250
177	3	Aden Kirk	£2,000
177	3	Thomas Lovely	£2,000
179	3	Jarred Cole	£1,500
179	3	Joe Croft	£1,500
179	3	Michael Taylor	£1,500
182	3	Daniel Markovsky	£1,250
182	3	Michal Smejda	£1,250
182	3	Patrik Kovács	£1,250
182	3	Alex Fehlmann	£1,250
182	3	Marcel Walpen	£1,250
182	3	Nándor Prés	£1,250
182	3	András Csóka	£1,250
182	3	György Jehirszki	£1,250
182	3	János Végső	£1,250
182	3	Brian Raman	£1,250
182	3	François Schweyen	£1,250
182	3	Jody Tobback	£1,250
182	3	Luc Bogaert	£1,250
182	3	Krzysztof Kciuk	£1,250
182	3	Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
182	3	Nico Blum	£1,250
182	3	Damian Mol	£1,250
182	3	Teemu Harju	£1,250
182	3	Christopher Toonders	£1,250
182	3	Daniel Larsson	£1,250
182	3	Christian Gödl	£1,250
182	3	Dominik Haberl	£1,250
182	3	Hannes Schnier	£1,250
182	3	Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
182	3	Arno Merk	£1,250
182	3	Alexander Mašek	£1,250
182	3	Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
182	3	Oliver Mueller	£1,250
182	3	Viktor Tingström	£1,250
182	3	Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
182	3	Born Van Put	£1,250
182	3	Geert De Vos	£1,250
182	3	Jeroen Caron	£1,250
182	3	Steven Strobbe	£1,250
216	3	Dominik Grüllich	£1,000
216	3	Alexander Merkx	£1,000
216	3	Stefaan Henderyck	£1,000
216	3	Reece Colley	£1,000
216	3	Bradley Brooks	£1,000
216	3	Harry Lane	£1,000
216	3	Jack Male	£1,000
216	3	Jenson Walker	£1,000
216	3	Johnny Haines	£1,000
216	3	Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
216	3	Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 31 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 (16)	—					16
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	£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. 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

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

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	320 days

Key

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

Total Days at No. 1

No.	Player	Total
1	Phil Taylor	3323
2	Michael van Gerwen	2559
3	Alan Warriner-Little	1558
4	Rod Harrington	1207
5	Colin Lloyd	666
6	Gerwyn Price	569
7	Peter Manley	399
8	Michael Smith	365
9	John Part	203
10	Peter Wright	161
11	Raymond van Barneveld	159
12	Luke Humphries	320
13	Dennis Priestley	155
Active players in bold.

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