Polemonium Reptans

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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.^[1]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 21 July 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,650,750
2	1	Michael Smith	£1,064,750
3	1	Michael van Gerwen	£964,500
4	2	Rob Cross	£604,250
5		Nathan Aspinall	£579,500
6	2	Gerwyn Price	£533,250
7		Dave Chisnall	£513,500
8		Jonny Clayton	£502,500
9	2	Damon Heta	£473,250
10	1	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£472,750
11	2	Ross Smith	£469,250
12	2	Peter Wright	£468,000
13	1	Chris Dobey	£424,500
14	1	Joe Cullen	£411,500
15	1	Stephen Bunting	£410,750
16	4	Danny Noppert	£403,500
17	1	Josh Rock	£384,750
18	4	James Wade	£365,750
19		Andrew Gilding	£363,750
20	3	Dirk van Duijvenbode	£358,750
21	1	Ryan Searle	£352,500
22	1	Gary Anderson	£335,000
23		Martin Schindler	£329,000
24	1	Luke Littler	£314,500
25	1	Gabriel Clemens	£295,500
26		Krzysztof Ratajski	£286,750
27		Daryl Gurney	£275,000
28	1	Raymond van Barneveld	£272,250
29	1	Brendan Dolan	£267,750
30		José de Sousa	£215,000
31		Scott Williams	£196,500
32		Gian van Veen	£195,000
*Change since 3 July 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 21 July 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33		Ricardo Pietreczko	£190,500
34		Luke Woodhouse	£183,000
35	1	Ryan Joyce	£174,500
36	3	Mike De Decker	£154,750
37	2	Kim Huybrechts	£153,500
38	1	Madars Razma	£152,500
39	1	Callan Rydz	£148,500
40		Martin Lukeman	£140,750
41		Alan Soutar	£132,750
42		Jermaine Wattimena	£123,500
43		Ricky Evans	£122,250
44	2	Ritchie Edhouse	£120,750
44		Jim Williams	£120,750
46	1	William O'Connor	£114,000
47		Cameron Menzies	£106,000
48		Matt Campbell	£105,250
49		Steve Beaton	£104,250
50		Simon Whitlock	£103,500
51		Keane Barry	£100,500
52	1	Kevin Doets	£99,750
53		Richard Veenstra	£95,000
54		Mickey Mansell	£88,500
55	1	Boris Krčmar	£87,000
56	1	Mensur Suljović	£84,750
57	3	Florian Hempel	£82,750
58	1	Ryan Meikle	£82,500
59	3	Niels Zonneveld	£79,750
60	2	Jamie Hughes	£79,500
61		Vincent van der Voort	£78,500
62	1	Mervyn King	£75,750
63	1	Ian White	£73,500
64	2	Adam Gawlas	£71,500
*Change since 3 July 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 21 July 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65	6	Rowby-John Rodriguez	£63,750
66	1	Lee Evans	£58,750
67	1	Dylan Slevin	£55,500
68	3	Adrian Lewis	£48,750
69		Stephen Burton	£44,500
70		Karel Sedláček	£43,250
71		Jeffrey de Zwaan	£43,000
72		Daniel Klose	£42,250
72		Maik Kuivenhoven	£42,250
74		Keegan Brown	£37,750
75		Jeffrey Sparidaans	£31,500
76		Arron Monk	£30,750
77		Graham Hall	£28,750
78		Robert Owen	£28,500
79		Nick Kenny	£27,750
80		Graham Usher	£26,750
81		Wesley Plaisier	£25,000
81		Dom Taylor	£25,000
83		Jurjen van der Velde	£24,250
84		Pascal Rupprecht	£24,000
85		Jeffrey de Graaf	£21,500
86		Wessel Nijman	£19,000
86		Josh Payne	£19,000
88		Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
89		Andy Baetens	£18,500
90		Geert Nentjes	£18,000
91		Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
92		Owen Roelofs	£17,500
93		James Hurrell	£16,750
94		Danny van Trijp	£15,000
95		Thibault Tricole	£14,750
96		Berry van Peer	£14,500
97		Robbie Knops	£14,250
98		Mario Vandenbogaerde	£14,000
99		Christian Perez	£13,500
100		Patrick Geeraets	£12,500
101		Steve Lennon	£12,000
101		Adam Warner	£12,000
103		Lukas Wenig	£11,750
103		Chris Landman	£11,750
105		Danny Jansen	£11,500
106		Radek Szagański	£11,250
107		Owen Bates	£11,000
107		Danny Lauby	£11,000
109		Callum Goffin	£10,750
110		Franz Rötzsch	£10,500
110		Leighton Bennett	£10,500
112		Nathan Rafferty	£9,750
113		Robert Grundy	£9,500
113		Haupai Puha	£9,500
115		Matthew Dennant	£9,000
116		George Killington	£8,000
116		Benjamin Reus	£8,000
116		Brett Claydon	£8,000
119		Cameron Crabtree	£7,500
119		Connor Scutt	£7,500
121		Kai Gotthardt	£7,250
122		Adam Hunt	£7,000
122		Stefan Bellmont	£7,000
122		Rhys Griffin	£7,000
122		Jelle Klaasen	£7,000
126		Jitse Van der Wal	£6,750
127		Andy Boulton	£6,500
128		Jacques Labre	£6,250
129		Richie Burnett	£5,500
129		Paul Krohne	£5,500
129		Darren Beveridge	£5,500
129		Joshua Richardson	£5,500
133		Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
134		Tim Wolters	£4,500
134		Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
136		William Borland	£4,000
136		Michele Turetta	£4,000
136		John Henderson	£4,000
139		Kevin Troppmann	£3,750
139		Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
141		Martijn Dragt	£3,000
141		Jules van Dongen	£3,000
143		Jan Dueckers	£2,500
143		Lee Cocks	£2,500
143		Marvin van Velzen	£2,500
143		Moreno Blom	£2,500
143		Moritz Hilger	£2,500
143		Sebastian Białecki	£2,500
143		Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
143		Johan Engström	£2,500
143		Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
143		Leonard Gates	£2,500
143		Scott Mitchell	£2,500
154		Jamie Atkins	£2,000
154		Darryl Pilgrim	£2,000
154		Thomas Lovely	£2,000
157		Jarred Cole	£1,500
157		Joe Croft	£1,500
157		Michael Taylor	£1,500
160		Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
160		Marko Kantele	£1,250
160		Nico Blum	£1,250
160		Christian Kist	£1,250
160		Damian Mol	£1,250
160		Jiri Brejcha	£1,250
160		Teemu Harju	£1,250
160		Christopher Toonders	£1,250
160		Daniel Larsson	£1,250
160		Christian Gödl	£1,250
160		Dominik Haberl	£1,250
160		Hannes Schnier	£1,250
160		Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
160		Arno Merk	£1,250
160		Niko Springer	£1,250
160		René Eidams	£1,250
160		Alexander Mašek	£1,250
160		Cor Dekker	£1,250
160		Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
160		Matthias Ehlers	£1,250
160		Oliver Mueller	£1,250
160		Viktor Tingström	£1,250
160		Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
160		Born Van Put	£1,250
160		Geert De Vos	£1,250
160		Jeroen Caron	£1,250
160		Steven Strobbe	£1,250
187		Justin Hood	£1,000
187		Shane McGuirk	£1,000
187		Aden Kirk	£1,000
187		Bradley Brooks	£1,000
187		Harry Lane	£1,000
187		Jack Male	£1,000
187		Jenson Walker	£1,000
187		Johnny Haines	£1,000
187		Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
187		Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 3 July 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	206 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