PDC Order of Merit ahead of World Darts Championship as Luke Humphries on course to break ranking barrier in darting first

Luke Humphries cemented his position at the top of the PDC Order of Merit by taking the title at the Players Championship Finals. 'Cool Hand Luke' won 11-7 over Luke Littler in the final to earn the top prize of 120,000 pounds.

At 1,804,250 pounds, Humphries is at the top of the world rankings by some distance. If he takes the world title in January, he will become the first player ever to have more than two million pounds on his Order of Merit. If Humphries loses the World Championship final, he will finish at 1,984,250 pounds. The reigning world champion can then try to still break the magic barrier in the new season.

Behind Humphries, Michael Smith regained the second spot from Michael van Gerwen. Losing finalist Littler moved up to the fourth spot. So only the three players above Littler earned more ranking prize money in two years than 'The Nuke' earned in one year.

Damon Heta has returned to the top-10 of the world rankings. He climbed from spot eleven to the ninth position. Dimitri van den Bergh went the opposite way. Nathan Aspinall also progressed two spots, at the expense of Danny Noppert and Gary Anderson.

Ross Smith moved up to nineteenth place after his semifinal finish in Minehead. Martin Schindler (+1) and Brendan Dolan (+1) are the other players in the top-32 of the PDC Order of Merit who moved up one spot.