PDC European Tour Order of Merit update: Luke Littler now leads Nathan Aspinall as Niko Springer surges after title

Budapest hosted the twelfth tournament of the European Tour 2025 last weekend. The final victory went to Niko Springer after a particularly exciting final. The 25-year-old German defeated Danny Noppert 8-7 in the final of the Hungarian Darts Trophy.

With two tournaments (Swiss Darts Trophy and German Darts Championship) still to go, it is becoming increasingly exciting to see who will and will not qualify for the European Championship. The top 32 after the completion of the 14 tournaments of the European Tour 2025 are sure of a starting place at this PDC major, which takes place October 23 to 26 in Dortmund.

Luke Littler lost in the semifinals of the Hungarian Darts Trophy last weekend, but is the new leader on the European Tour Order of Merit. 'The Nuke' won two European Tour tournaments this year, both in Belgium. Just behind Littler follows Nathan Aspinall in second place. Like Littler, 'The Asp' has already won two Euro Tours this year, but went down in the second round last weekend.

Completing the top three is Martin Schindler, who won this year's Austrian Darts Open. 'The Wall' made it to the third round last weekend, where he lost 6-2 to Littler.

Just outside the top four we find Luke Humphries. The European Championship is one of the few majors - Humphries never got past the quarter-finals - that the 30-year-old Englishman has never managed to win. Springer climbs to seventh place after his exploits this weekend, so he can prepare for his debut at the European Championship.

Springer had reached a final prior to his win this weekend so he was already up there in the rankings and now will look even towards the World Grand Prix potentially with another run in the coming weeks. The rest of the top 10 is made up of names that aren't much of a surprise including Josh Rock, Jonny Clayton, Ross Smith and Stephen Bunting.

Michael van Gerwen sits just outside the top 10 in 13th alongside fellow Dutchmen Wessel Nijman and Gian van Veen but the race to Dortmund now only has two more events to go with trouble for some names.

The 32nd and final qualifying spot is currently held by Ritchie Edhouse, last year's surprising winner of this PDC major when he defeated Jermaine Wattimena in the final. 'Madhouse' is only slightly ahead of the No. 33.

That number 33 is Joe Cullen. Together with Rob Cross (34th), 'The Rockstar' is one of the big names currently outside the qualifying places. Both Englishmen therefore have quite a bit of work ahead of them in the coming weeks. Especially for Cross - two-time winner of the European Championship - it would be a disgrace if he does not qualify.

Michael Smith (37th) will also not be there at this year's European Championship. The 35-year-old former world champion did not manage to qualify for the remaining two tournaments and can therefore no longer climb into the top 32. A new low in what is already a catastrophic year for 'Bullyboy'.

For the winner of a European Tour there is 30000 pounds waiting, so things can still change in the coming weeks on the European Tour Order of Merit. However, the nervousness towards qualification for the PDC major is reaching its boiling point.

Other well known names that won't make it to Dortmund right now include Krzysztof Ratajski who is a previous perennial winner in these events and made his name on the European Tour as well as Kim Huybrechts, Martin Lukeman, Mensur Suljovic and Dimitri van den Bergh who are mostly sunken further down and in the case of a few including as mentioned Smith, they aren't qualified for the next two anyway so won't make it to Dortmund.