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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.^[1]

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 12 May 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 1 - 32
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		Luke Humphries	£1,521,500
2		Michael Smith	£1,059,250
3		Michael van Gerwen	£1,051,500
4		Nathan Aspinall	£612,750
5	1	Rob Cross	£609,250
6	1	Gerwyn Price	£607,750
7		Dave Chisnall	£498,000
7	1	Peter Wright	£498,000
9	2	Damon Heta	£484,750
10		Jonny Clayton	£482,250
11	2	Dimitri Van den Bergh	£480,250
12		Danny Noppert	£464,000
13		Chris Dobey	£425,750
14		Ross Smith	£416,750
15		Joe Cullen	£414,250
16	1	Stephen Bunting	£406,750
17	1	Dirk van Duijvenbode	£404,250
18		Andrew Gilding	£363,000
19		Ryan Searle	£345,500
20	1	Josh Rock	£341,500
21		Gary Anderson	£334,250
22	1	James Wade	£325,000
23	1	Martin Schindler	£322,000
24		Gabriel Clemens	£315,500
25		Luke Littler	£303,500
26		Krzysztof Ratajski	£295,500
27		Brendan Dolan	£281,750
28		Daryl Gurney	£279,250
29		Raymond van Barneveld	£255,250
30		José de Sousa	£245,250
31		Scott Williams	£209,000
32		Ricardo Pietreczko	£183,000
*Change since 7 May 2024.

PDC Order of Merit as of 12 May 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 33 - 64
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
33	1	Gian van Veen	£170,000
33	1	Luke Woodhouse	£170,000
35	2	Kim Huybrechts	£169,750
36	3	Madars Razma	£164,250
37		Ryan Joyce	£162,500
38		Callan Rydz	£161,750
39	3	Martin Lukeman	£161,500
40		Mike De Decker	£153,500
41	2	Jermaine Wattimena	£124,250
42	1	Jim Williams	£123,500
43	2	Ricky Evans	£120,500
44		Alan Soutar	£116,750
45		Simon Whitlock	£114,250
46		William O'Connor	£112,000
47		Steve Beaton	£109,250
48	1	Ritchie Edhouse	£107,250
49	1	Keane Barry	£103,000
50	2	Rowby-John Rodriguez	£101,250
51		Cameron Menzies	£100,500
52	1	Matt Campbell	£98,750
53	1	Mickey Mansell	£96,250
54		Kevin Doets	£91,750
55		Richard Veenstra	£91,500
56		Boris Krčmar	£88,750
57	1	Mensur Suljović	£85,750
58	1	Jamie Hughes	£83,750
59	1	Ryan Meikle	£83,500
60	1	Florian Hempel	£81,750
61	4	Vincent van der Voort	£81,500
62		Mervyn King	£80,500
63	1	Ian White	£80,000
64	2	Adrian Lewis	£77,500
*Change since 7 May 2024.

Click "show" to view players ranked outside top 64

PDC Order of Merit as of 12 May 2024.^[2]

Players ranked 65th or lower
Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
65		Adam Gawlas	£73,500
66		Niels Zonneveld	£69,250
67		Lee Evans	£55,250
68		Dylan Slevin	£52,000
69		Jeffrey de Zwaan	£39,500
70		Daniel Klose	£38,750
70	4	Maik Kuivenhoven	£38,750
72	1	Stephen Burton	£38,000
73	1	Karel Sedláček	£36,750
73	1	Keegan Brown	£36,750
75		Arron Monk	£29,750
76		Jeffrey Sparidaans	£28,000
77		Graham Hall	£27,250
78		Robert Owen	£26,000
79		Pascal Rupprecht	£24,000
80		Nick Kenny	£23,750
81		Graham Usher	£23,250
82		Jurjen van der Velde	£22,750
83		Josh Payne	£19,000
84		Adam Smith-Neale	£18,750
85		Ronny Huybrechts	£17,750
86		Geert Nentjes	£17,000
87		Owen Roelofs	£15,500
88		James Hurrell	£15,250
89	2	Thibault Tricole	£14,750
90	1	Berry van Peer	£14,500
91	1	Danny van Trijp	£14,000
92	1	Jeffrey de Graaf	£13,500
92	5	Wessel Nijman	£13,500
92	1	Christian Perez	£13,500
95	1	Robbie Knops	£13,250
96	1	Dom Taylor	£12,500
97	1	Adam Warner	£12,000
98	7	Andy Baetens	£11,500
99	2	Steve Lennon	£11,000
100	1	Chris Landman	£10,750
101	1	Leighton Bennett	£10,500
102	1	Patrick Geeraets	£10,000
102	1	Danny Lauby	£10,000
104	1	Lukas Wenig	£9,750
104	1	Callum Goffin	£9,750
106	1	Danny Jansen	£9,000
107	14	Franz Rötzsch	£8,500
107		Mario Vandenbogaerde	£8,500
109	1	Benjamin Drue Reus	£8,000
109	1	Brett Claydon	£8,000
111	3	Matthew Dennant	£6,750
112	2	Radek Szagański	£6,500
113	2	Jacques Labre	£6,250
114	2	Robert Grundy	£6,000
114	2	Jelle Klaasen	£6,000
116	2	Darren Beveridge	£5,500
116	2	Paul Krohne	£5,500
116	2	George Killington	£5,500
116	2	Stefan Bellmont	£5,500
116	2	Joshua Richardson	£5,500
121	11	Haupai Puha	£4,750
121	1	Romeo Grbavac	£4,750
123	2	Nathan Rafferty	£4,500
123	2	Adam Hunt	£4,500
123	2	Rhys Griffin	£4,500
123	2	Connor Scutt	£4,500
123	2	Oskar Lukasiak	£4,500
128	1	Owen Bates	£4,250
129	1	William Borland	£4,000
129	1	Michele Turetta	£4,000
129	1	John Henderson	£4,000
132	1	Michael Unterbuchner	£3,750
133	1	Tim Wolters	£3,500
134		Jitse Van der Wal	£3,250
135		Moritz Hilger	£2,500
135		Sebastian Białecki	£2,500
135		Richie Burnett	£2,500
135		Darius Labanauskas	£2,500
135		Johan Engström	£2,500
135		Wesley Plaisier	£2,500
135		Andreas Harrysson	£2,500
135		Leonard Gates	£2,500
135		Scott Mitchell	£2,500
144	2	Jules van Dongen	£2,000
144	2	Thomas Lovely	£2,000
146	2	Lee Cocks	£1,500
146	2	Jarred Cole	£1,500
146	2	Joe Croft	£1,500
146	2	Michael Taylor	£1,500
150		Christopher Toonders	£1,250
150		Daniel Larsson	£1,250
150		Kevin Troppmann	£1,250
150	2	Christian Gödl	£1,250
150	2	Dominik Haberl	£1,250
150	2	Hannes Schnier	£1,250
150	2	Zoran Lerchbacher	£1,250
150	2	Arno Merk	£1,250
150	2	Niko Springer	£1,250
150	2	René Eidams	£1,250
150	2	Alexander Mašek	£1,250
150	2	Cor Dekker	£1,250
150	2	Jan Dueckers	£1,250
150	2	Kai Gotthardt	£1,250
150	2	Patrick Klingelhöfer	£1,250
150	2	Matthias Ehlers	£1,250
150	2	Oliver Mueller	£1,250
150	2	Viktor Tingström	£1,250
150	2	Vítězslav Sedlák	£1,250
150	2	Born Van Put	£1,250
150	2	Geert De Vos	£1,250
150	2	Jeroen Caron	£1,250
150	2	Steven Strobbe	£1,250
173	5	Shane McGuirk	£1,000
173	5	Darryl Pilgrim	£1,000
173	5	Aden Kirk	£1,000
173	5	Bradley Brooks	£1,000
173	5	Harry Lane	£1,000
173	5	Jack Male	£1,000
173	5	Jenson Walker	£1,000
173	5	Johnny Haines	£1,000
173	5	Ron Meulenkamp	£1,000
173	5	Tom Lonsdale	£1,000
*Change since 7 May 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.^[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

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^[8]

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.^[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

1. The Grand Slam pays an additional £3,500 to the 8 group winners.
2. The Grand Slam pays £8,000 and £5,000 for third and fourth place finishers respectively in the group stage, which comprise the top 32.
3. The 2020 PDC Pro Tour was reduced to 4 European Tour events and 23 Players Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. The 16 seeded players at a European Tour event do not receive money toward OoM for a top 32 finish.
5. European Tour events pay out to 48 players (the complete field).

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

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]

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^[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	130 days

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

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.^{[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

• Professional Darts Corporation

References

1. "PDC Rankings". Global Darts. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
2. "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 12 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
3. "ProTour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
4. "2020 European Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
5. "Players Championship Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
6. "Challenge Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
7. "Development Tour Order of Merit". PDC. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
8. "PDC Order of Merit Rules". PDC. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
9. "2023 PDC Women's Series Order of Merit". Retrieved 15 October 2023.
10. "Champions League of Darts: BBC to broadcast inaugural tournament". BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
11. . PDC. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
12. "List of Former World Number Ones". PDPA. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
13. "Darts Database Player Stats". Darts Database. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
14. "Lloydy on top of the World". PDC. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
15. "Taylor Regains Number One Spot". PDC. 12 June 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
16. "Lloyd Confirmed As Number One". PDC.
17. "Taylor Back on Top". PDC. 9 June 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
18. Walters, Mike (1 January 2014). "Michael van Gerwen is Ladbrokes PDC World Darts Champion after beating Peter Wright". Mirror. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
19. Allen, Dave (4 January 2021). "A number one hit! Price joins exclusive list to top rankings". PDC.
20. "Peter Wright is world number one darts player after Gerwyn Price fails to reach UK Open final". Sporting Life. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
21. Gorton, Josh. "Price denies De Sousa in Winter Gardens thriller to seal semi-final spot". PDC. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
22. "PRICE REGAINS WORLD NUMBER ONE SPOT, ROSS SMITH INTO TOP 20 AFTER MAIDEN MAJOR WIN IN UPDATED PDC ORDER OF MERIT AFTER EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP". Darts News. 31 October 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
23. "Michael Smith beats Michael van Gerwen to win first world title with 'best leg of darts ever'". ESPN. 4 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.

External links

• Official PDC Order of Merit