PDC Order of Merit

The PDC Order of Merit, known for sponsorship purposes as the Werner Rankings Ladder,^[1] is the world ranking system for professional darts players used by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), which ranks players according to the prize money won in PDC ranking tournaments. These world rankings are used to determine qualification and seeding for the televised ranking tournaments as well as the awarding of PDC Tour Cards at the end of the season.^[2] The Order of Merit format has been used since the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship, superseding the original PDC World Ranking system established in 1993, where points awarded for performances in tournaments according to their relative prestige.^[3][4] Upon the introduction of the rankings, the first player to hold the number one rank was Alan Warriner.^[5] Since 1993, twelve other players have held the top spot, including Luke Humphries, the current world number one.^[6] Alongside the main Order of Merit, the PDC also operate several secondary Orders of Merit which count prize money won on specific PDC Tours and may also offer qualification to specific televised events.

Methodology

The PDC World Darts Championship offers the highest amount of prize money of any event contributing to the Order of Merit.

The Professional Darts Corporation adopted the current Order of Merit system in 2007. In this system, the total prize money won in PDC ranking events over the eligibility period is counted. For PDC Tour Card holders, this eligibility period is either the previous two years or since the player was awarded a tour card, whichever is shorter.^[4] The PDC World Darts Championship is considered last event of the season, after which the year-end Order of Merit is calculated and players in the top 64 offered a Tour Card for the following year.^[4] New Tour Card holders start on £0, even if they held a Tour Card in the previous season but failed to make the top 64, resulting in them having to regain their Tour Card through the qualifying tournament, Q School.^[4] Players without Tour Cards who earn money in ranking tournaments (such as Luke Littler in the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship) are eligible to be ranked during the season,^[7] though if they fail to reach the top 64 at the end of the year, their ranking money is reset to £0.^[4] If two players are tied and need separating for seeding or event qualification, the tie is broken by player with the highest total earnings across the previous four ranking tournaments. If this fails to break the tie, players' prize money is counted back from the most recent event until a tie can be broken, with the possibility of a play-off if this cannot break the tie.^[4]

Ranking tournaments

The PDC holds ranked and unranked tournaments. Ranking tournaments are those which all PDC Tour Card holders are eligible to participate in or qualify for, while unranked tournaments are invitational and do not count toward the Order of Merit. Currently, the Premier League, World Series of Darts events and the World Cup of Darts are the only unranked PDC tournaments with Tour Card Holder participation outside of the secondary tours.^[4]

Prize money awarded towards 2025 PDC Order of Merit in ranking tournaments (£1000s)^[4]

Tournament	Total	Winner	Finalist	Semi-finalists	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 64	Top 96	Top 128	Prelim. Top 16	Prelim. Top 32	Prelim. Top 64
PDC Premier Events (2025)
World Championship	5,000	1,000	400	200	100	60	35	25	—	15	—
World Masters[A]	500	100	50	30	12.5	10	5	—			2.5	1	0.75
UK Open	600	110	50	30	15	10	5	2.5	1.5	1	—
World Matchplay	800	200	100	50	30	15	10	—
World Grand Prix	600	120	60	40	25	15	7.5	—
European Championship	600	120	60	40	25	15	7.5	—
Grand Slam of Darts[B]	650	150	70	50	25	12	5[C]	—
Players Championship Finals	600	120	60	30	20	10	6.5	3	—
PDC Pro Tour[D]
14 European Tour events	175	30	12	8.5	6	4	2.5[E]	1.25[F]	—
34 Players Championship events	125	15	10	5	3.5	2.5	1.5	1.0	—
Total 2025 payouts	14,625	2,670	1,246	1,401	1,682	2,102	2,448	1,956	48	992	20	16	24
Prize money from the 2023 and 2024 seasons still contributing to the Order of Merit, where differing from 2025 prize money[11][12]
World Championship	2,500	500	200	100	50	35	25	15	7.5	—
Prize money from the 2023 season still contributing to the Order of Merit, where differing from 2024 and 2025 prize money[12]
Players Championship events[G]	100	12	8	4	3	2	1.25	0.75	—

1. Prior to 2025, the World Masters was an invitational tournament for 24 players which did not contribute to the Order of Merit.^[8][9]
2. An additional £3,500 is awarded to the 8 group winners.
3. £8,000 and £5,000 are awarded to the third and fourth place finishers respectively in the group stage, which comprise the top 32.
4. In 2025, the Pro Tour expanded from 13 European Tour events to 14 and 30 Players Championship events to 34.^[9][10]
5. Seeded players at European Tour events automatically qualify to the top 32, and do not receive money toward Order of Merit if they lose at this stage.
6. European Tour events only have 48 players.
7. Only events which are less than 104 weeks old count to the Order of Merit.

PDC Order of Merit

Luke Humphries, the current PDC world number one

PDC Order of Merit as of 27 July 2025.^[13]

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,797,750
2		Luke Littler	£1,500,500
3		Michael van Gerwen	£739,750
4		Stephen Bunting	£620,500
5	3	James Wade	£611,750
6	3	Gerwyn Price	£533,000
7	1	Chris Dobey	£520,500
8	3	Jonny Clayton	£513,750
9	2	Rob Cross	£505,500
10		Damon Heta	£486,250
11	6	Josh Rock	£481,750
12		Gary Anderson	£475,750
13		Dave Chisnall	£468,250
14		Ross Smith	£456,750
15	1	Danny Noppert	£446,500
16	1	Peter Wright	£442,000
17	1	Martin Schindler	£416,500
18	4	Gian van Veen	£410,000
19	1	Mike De Decker	£397,000
20	1	Ryan Searle	£388,000
21		Michael Smith	£368,500
22	1	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£362,250
23	16	Nathan Aspinall	£333,250
24	2	Ryan Joyce	£326,250
25	3	Andrew Gilding	£325,750
26	1	Daryl Gurney	£319,750
27		Ritchie Edhouse	£315,250
28	1	Ricardo Pietreczko	£314,500
29	5	Joe Cullen	£312,500
30		Jermaine Wattimena	£308,250
31		Luke Woodhouse	£296,250
32		Dirk van Duijvenbode	£278,500
*Change since 13 July 2025.

PDC Order of Merit as of 27 July 2025.^[13]

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33	1	Cameron Menzies	£271,750
34	1	Krzysztof Ratajski	£267,250
35	1	Raymond van Barneveld	£255,250
36	1	Brendan Dolan	£246,000
37		Scott Williams	£243,750
38		Martin Lukeman	£224,750
39		Gabriel Clemens	£194,250
40	2	Wessel Nijman	£190,500
41	1	Kevin Doets	£180,750
41	1	Callan Rydz	£180,750
43		Mickey Mansell	£159,000
44		Ricky Evans	£153,750
45		Madars Razma	£150,750
46		Niels Zonneveld	£145,750
47		William O'Connor	£141,000
48	1	Richard Veenstra	£120,500
49	1	Ian White	£118,750
50	2	Kim Huybrechts	£116,250
51		Florian Hempel	£108,750
52	1	Matt Campbell	£102,500
53	1	Keane Barry	£101,500
54	1	Alan Soutar	£98,500
55	3	José de Sousa	£98,250
56		Connor Scutt	£97,250
57		Jim Williams	£95,500
58		Robert Owen	£94,000
59		Jeffrey de Graaf	£93,500
60		Nick Kenny	£90,500
61		Ryan Meikle	£86,500
61		Stephen Burton	£86,500
63		Mensur Suljović	£84,750
64		Thibault Tricole	£78,750
*Change since 13 July 2025.

PDC Order of Merit as of 27 July 2025.^[13]

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65		Dylan Slevin	£77,250
66		Dom Taylor	£68,000
67		James Hurrell	£67,500
68		Mario Vandenbogaerde	£58,250
69		Chris Landman	£52,750
70		Niko Springer	£43,750
71		Andy Baetens	£42,000
72		Matthew Dennant	£39,250
73		Bradley Brooks	£37,750
73		Berry van Peer	£37,750
75		Darren Beveridge	£36,250
76		Steve Lennon	£36,000
77		Nathan Rafferty	£35,750
78		Lukas Wenig	£35,500
79		Patrick Geeraets	£35,250
80		Rhys Griffin	£35,000
81		Karel Sedláček	£34,000
82		Owen Bates	£33,500
83		Jitse Van der Wal	£32,500
83		Adam Hunt	£32,500
85		Radek Szagański	£31,500
86		Jelle Klaasen	£29,250
87		Martijn Dragt	£29,000
88		Danny Lauby	£28,750
89		Haupai Puha	£26,500
90		Benjamin Reus	£26,000
91		Robert Grundy	£25,750
91		Adam Lipscombe	£25,750
93		William Borland	£25,500
94		George Killington	£25,000
95		Cam Crabtree	£23,750
96		Dominik Grüllich	£23,250
97		Darius Labanauskas	£22,250
98		Sebastian Białecki	£21,250
99		Justin Hood	£21,000
99		Brett Claydon	£21,000
101		Max Hopp	£20,750
102		Darryl Pilgrim	£16,250
103		Andy Boulton	£15,500
104		Wesley Plaisier	£15,250
104		Maik Kuivenhoven	£15,250
104		Joshua Richardson	£15,250
104		Thomas Lovely	£15,250
108		Michele Turetta	£15,000
109		Marvin van Velzen	£12,750
109		Jim Long	£12,750
111		Leon Weber	£12,000
112		Tom Bissell	£11,500
112		Carl Sneyd	£11,500
114		Christian Kist	£11,000
115		Adam Warner	£10,500
116		Stefan Bellmont	£9,500
117		Boris Krčmar	£9,000
118		Greg Ritchie	£8,500
118		Tim Wolters	£8,500
120		Andreas Harrysson	£8,250
121		Ted Evetts	£8,000
122		Maximilian Czerwinski	£7,500
122		Stefaan Henderyck	£7,500
122		Rusty-Jake Rodriguez	£7,500
122		Jimmy van Schie	£7,500
122		Tavis Dudeney	£7,500
127		Oskar Lukasiak	£7,250
128		Kevin Burness	£7,000
129		Tommy Lishman	£6,500
130		Tytus Kanik	£6,250
131		Jamai van den Herik	£6,000
131		Viktor Tingström	£6,000
133		Graham Hall	£5,500
133		Beau Greaves	£5,500
135		Adam Paxton	£5,250
136		Mervyn King	£5,000
136		Daniel Klose	£5,000
136		Jurjen van der Velde	£5,000
139		Alexander Merkx	£4,500
139		Danny van Trijp	£4,500
139		Tom Sykes	£4,500
139		Cor Dekker	£4,500
143		Pero Ljubić	£4,250
144		Jeffrey Sparidaans	£4,000
144		Jarno Bottenberg	£4,000
144		Kai Gotthardt	£4,000
144		Jules van Dongen	£4,000
148		Johan Engström	£3,750
148		Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
148		Aden Kirk	£3,750
151		Nathan Girvan	£3,250
152		Kevin Knopf	£2,500
152		Petr Křivka	£2,500
152		Teemu Harju	£2,500
152		Paul Krohne	£2,500
152		Graham Usher	£2,500
157		Scott Campbell	£2,000
158		Henry Coates	£1,750
159		Jack Tweddell	£1,500
160		Kevin Troppmann	£1,250
160		Liam Maendl-Lawrance	£1,250
160		Martin Kramer	£1,250
160		Mirosław Grudziecki	£1,250
160		Yorick Hofkens	£1,250
160		Dragutin Horvat	£1,250
160		Joshua Hermann	£1,250
160		Moritz Bohrmann	£1,250
160		Jeffrey de Zwaan	£1,250
160		Jerry Hendriks	£1,250
160		Benjamin Pratnemer	£1,250
160		Marcel Erba	£1,250
160		Christian Gödl	£1,250
160		György Jehirszki	£1,250
160		Rowby-John Rodriguez	£1,250
160		Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
160		András Borbély	£1,250
160		Finn Behrens	£1,250
160		Michael Rosenauer	£1,250
160		René Eidams	£1,250
160		Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
160		Paul Goyer	£1,250
160		Laurin Welk	£1,250
160		Marko Kantele	£1,250
160		Cedric Waegemans	£1,250
160		François Schweyen	£1,250
160		Patrick De Backer	£1,250
160		Sybren Gijbels	£1,250
188		Sam Spivey	£1,000
188		Paul Rowley	£1,000
188		Shaun Fox	£1,000
188		Simon Stevenson	£1,000
188		Tommy Morris	£1,000
188		Michael Flynn	£1,000
194		Ryan Branley	£750
*Change since 13 July 2025.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

Secondary Orders of Merit

In addition to the main two-year Order of Merit, the PDC also operates three Orders of Merit for subsets of the PDC Tour and four Orders of Merit for secondary tours. These rankings offer qualification to televised events and are the basis for seeding in tournaments. Additionally, some secondary tours offer Tour Cards. These are secondary Orders of Merit are the:

• Pro Tour 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 Players Championship events.^[14]
• European Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in European Tour events during the calendar year. The top 32 on this ranking list qualify for the European Championship at the end of the year, where all players are seeded according to their European Tour ranking.^[15]
• Players Championship Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Player Championship events during the calendar year. The top 64 on this ranking qualify for the Players Championship Finals. Similarly to the European Championship, all players are seeded according to their rank.^[16]
• Challenge Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Challenge Tour, a secondary tour open to players without Tour Cards that participated in the most recent Q-School. Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments and receive Tour Cards, depending on their rank.^[17] The Challenge Tour Order of Merit also acts as a reserve list for Pro Tour events.^[4]
• Development Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Development Tour, a secondary open to some Tour Card holders and players without Tour Card aged 16–23. Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments and receive Tour Cards, depending on their rank.^[18]
• Women's Series Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Women's Series, a secondary tour for female players.^[4] Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments and receive Tour Cards, depending on their rank.^[19]
• Women's World Matchplay Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Women's Series earned over an approximately 12-month period prior to the Women's World Matchplay, to the which the top 8 players are invited.^[4]

Qualification and seedings to PDC events via PDC Orders of Merit^[4]

Tournament	Qualifiers (seeds)
	By Order of Merit								Other
	Main	PT	ET	PC	WS	CT	DT	WO
Ranked televised events
World Championship	40 (32)	40	—			3	3	3	39
World Masters	24 (16)[a]	—				[b]	[b]	[b]	8[c]
UK Open	TCH	—				8	8	—	16
World Matchplay	16 (16)	16	—
World Grand Prix	16 (16)	16	—
European Championship	—		32 (32)	—
Grand Slam of Darts	0 (8)	—				1	1	1	21
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
World Series of Darts Finals	—				8 (8)	—			24
World Cup of Darts	[d]	—							[d]
Tour Cards	64	—				2	2	—	60[e]

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^[20]
2. The top 8 eligible players from the Secondary Tours holders enter at the preliminary round group stage
3. The 8 qualifiers from the preliminary round.
4. Customarily, up to 2 Tour Card Holders are invited where possible from each nation, with priority for selection given to the highest-ranked players in the main Order of Merit. However, on some occasions (such as John Henderson's defence of Scotland's 2021 title), a lower-ranked player is invited. Where no Tour Card holders are available for a participating nation, players are invited directly by the PDC or through national qualifiers.^[4][21]
5. Players who have one year remaining of a two-year Tour Card and players qualifying through Q-school.

Previous world ranking system

Prior to 2007, a ranking point system was used where ranking points were awarded according to the stage reached in a tournament and the relative prestige of the tournament.^[22] There was no limit on the number of tournaments which counted to the tally, which meant that the top-ranked players were not necessarily the best-performing in the major tournaments. For instance, 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.^[23]

PDC World Rankings Points System, 2003^[22]

Tournament Category	Winner	Runner-up	Top 4	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 40	Top 64
World Championship	50	40	35	30	24	16	12	[a]
Premier Event	30	24	20	16	12	8	—	[b][c]
Category One	16	12	10	8	6	4	—	[d]
Category Two	8	6	4	3	2	1	—
Category Three	5	4	3	2	1	—

1. 2, 4 or 6 points for players who reached the later rounds of qualifying.
2. For events with more than 128 players, 4 points.
3. 1, 2, or 4 points for players who reached the later rounds of qualifying for the World Matchplay.
4. For events with more than 128 players, 2 points.

Previous World Number Ones

PDC Ranking Leaders Timeline^[5][24]

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
Luke Humphries	2	2024 2025
Raymond van Barneveld	1	2008
John Part	1	2003
Peter Wright	1	2022
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

No.	Player(s)	From		Length	Ref.
1	Alan Warriner-Little	January 1993	Incarnation of the WDC	674 days[A]	[5]
2	Dennis Priestley	6 November 1994	1994 Lada UK Masters	155	[5][25]
3	Rod Harrington	10 April 1995	1995 UK Matchplay	479 days[A]	[5][25]
4	Phil Taylor	August 1996		31 days[A]	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner-Little (2)	September 1996		699 days[A]	[5][25]
	Rod Harrington (2)	1 August 1998	1998 World Matchplay	728 days	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (2)	29 July 2000	2000 World Matchplay	57 days	[5][25]
5	Peter Manley	24 September 2000	2000 Windy City Open	399 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner-Little (3)	28 October 2001	2001 World Grand Prix	69 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner-Little (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	5 January 2002	2002 World Championship	28 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner-Little (5)	2 February 2002	2002 Eastbourne Open	88 days[A]	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002		248 days[A]	[5][25]
6	John Part	4 January 2003	2003 World Championship	203 days	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (5)	26 July 2003	2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy	582 days	[5][25]
7	Colin Lloyd	27 February 2005	2005 West Tyrone Open	469 days	[26][25]
	Phil Taylor (6)	11 June 2006	2006 UK Open	7 days	[27][28]
	Colin Lloyd (2)	18 June 2006	2006 Players Championship 3	197 days	[28][25]
	Phil Taylor (7)	1 January 2007	2007 World Championship	365 days	[5][25]
8	Raymond van Barneveld	1 January 2008	2008 World Championship	159 days	[29][25]
	Phil Taylor (8)	8 June 2008	2008 UK Open	2,033 days	[29][30]
9	Michael van Gerwen	1 January 2014	2014 World Championship	2,559 days	[30][31]
10	Gerwyn Price	3 January 2021	2021 World Championship	427 days	[31][32]
11	Peter Wright	6 March 2022	2022 UK Open	140 days	[32][33]
	Gerwyn Price (2)	24 July 2022	2022 World Matchplay	77 days	[33]
	Peter Wright (2)	9 October 2022	2022 World Grand Prix	21 days	[34]
	Gerwyn Price (3)	30 October 2022	2022 European Championship	65 days	[34][35]
12	Michael Smith	3 January 2023	2023 World Championship	365 days	[35]
13	Luke Humphries	3 January 2024	2024 World Championship	573 days	[6][36]

1. 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

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	Luke Humphries	573	573
7	Gerwyn Price	569	427
8	Peter Manley	399	399
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

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	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