PDC Order Of Merit Explained: How The Darts Rankings Really Work

The PDC Order of Merit is the number that settles arguments in darts. It decides who is world number one, who gets seeded at the World Championship, who scrapes into the big televised events and who spends the winter on the floor instead. And unlike most sporting rankings, it is not built on points or on some opaque formula — it is built on cold, hard prize money.

Here is how the PDC Order of Merit actually works, what counts towards it, and why it matters more than any other list in the sport.

It is a two-year rolling prize money list

The Order of Merit is simply the total ranking prize money a player has earned over the previous two years. Nothing is weighted, nothing is averaged. Win a ranking event, bank the cheque, climb the list.

The “rolling” part is what makes it brutal. Money does not sit on your ranking forever — as each event comes round again, the prize money you won at that event two years earlier drops off. So a player defending a title is not just chasing another trophy; they are trying to replace money that is about to vanish. Fail to repeat, and the ranking slides even if the form looks fine.

That is why you will see players described as having “money coming off” ahead of a particular week. It is not jargon for its own sake. It is the single most useful thing to know about anyone’s ranking position.

What counts — and what does not

Ranking events are where the money comes from. That means the televised ranking majors — the World Championship, the UK Open, the World Matchplay, the World Grand Prix, the European Championship, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals — plus the two arms of the ProTour: Players Championship floor events and the European Tour.

The floor is where most of the grinding happens. Players Championship events are staged in bulk across the year in venues like Leicester, Wigan and Hildesheim, and while the individual cheques are small next to a major, the volume is enormous. A player can build a top-32 ranking almost entirely on the floor without ever going deep on television.

What does not count is just as important. Premier League Darts is non-ranking, so the 2026 title Luke Littler won by beating Luke Humphries 11–10 at The O2 in May added nothing to his Order of Merit total. The World Series of Darts events — the Australian Darts Masters and company — are non-ranking too, along with the World Series of Darts Finals. Great money, great exposure, no ranking effect.

This is the trap for casual viewers. Some of the most-watched darts of the year has zero bearing on the rankings, while a Tuesday afternoon in Leicester with barely a camera on it moves the list.

The top of the list right now

As of the snapshot at the end of July 2026, the Order of Merit reads:

1. Luke Littler — £3,127,000
2. Gian van Veen — £1,002,750
3. Luke Humphries — £1,000,500
4. Gerwyn Price — £722,500
5. Jonny Clayton — £681,500

James Wade, Michael van Gerwen, Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting, Danny Noppert and Gary Anderson complete the top eleven.

Two things jump out. The first is the size of Littler’s lead. More than £2m clear of second is not a ranking advantage, it is a different postcode — the product of holding the world title and winning every major played in 2026 so far, including the World Matchplay, where he beat Price 18–9 in Blackpool. You can read where his bid for a full set stands in our look at what still stands between Littler and darts history.

The second is how tight the fight for world number two is. Van Veen and Humphries are separated by roughly £2,250 — less than a single win is worth at some floor events. That gap can flip on one afternoon, which is precisely why anyone quoting the No.2 and No.3 order should check the latest update rather than trust last week’s version.

Why the number actually matters

Seeding. The top 32 on the Order of Merit are seeded at the World Championship at Alexandra Palace, which means a bye into the second round and a kinder early draw. Dropping out of that 32 is a genuine competitive penalty, not just a bruised ego — as Michael Smith’s slide out of the top 32 illustrated.

Qualification. Several majors take their field straight off a ranking list. The World Grand Prix and the European Championship both use ranking-based qualification routes, and the Players Championship Finals is filled from the ProTour Order of Merit — a separate one-year list covering floor events only, which rewards a hot season rather than two years of accumulation.

Tour Card security. The Order of Merit is also what keeps a Tour Card in a player’s pocket without a return trip to Q-School. Outside the top 64, it is the difference between a professional career and a January lottery.

Status and invitations. The Premier League field is picked rather than qualified for, but the Order of Merit is the loudest argument in the room. Being world number one is a commercial asset as much as a sporting one.

The other lists worth knowing

The main Order of Merit is not the only ranking in darts. The ProTour Order of Merit (one year, floor events only) feeds the Players Championship Finals. The European Tour Order of Merit governs European Championship qualification. The Development Tour and Challenge Tour run their own lists, each handing Tour Cards to their leading players. And the Women’s Series has its own Order of Merit, which is how the women’s places at the World Championship are settled.

Every one of them works on the same principle: prize money, banked, over a defined window.

How to read a PDC Order of Merit move

When you see a headline about someone climbing or falling, ask two questions. Was it a ranking event? And what money came off at the same time? A player can win a floor event and barely move if they won the equivalent event two years ago. Another can lose in round two and still climb, because a rival lost more.

That is the quiet drama of the Order of Merit. It updates after every ranking event, all year round, and it never stops taking money away with one hand while giving it with the other. If you want the other number darts fans argue about, start with what a nine-dart finish actually requires.

Ranking positions and prize money are tracked via the PDC and DartsRankings.com. Figures quoted are the end-of-July 2026 snapshot and move after every ranking event.

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