PDC Order of Merit Update: Luke Littler extends his lead even further, growing problems for Wright and Smith

The new darts season is now well underway. The Winmau World Masters was snapped up last weekend by Luke Littler, who ticked off one of the last blind spots on his résumé.

In mid-January, the Bahrain Darts Masters and the Saudi Darts Masters were already completed, but these are not tournaments that count towards the world rankings. The Winmau World Masters was therefore the first ranking event of the new season.

The title in Milton Keynes went to Luke Littler, who edged Luke Humphries 6-5 in a high-quality final. It was only Littler’s second appearance at the Masters; last year he fell in the quarterfinals. This victory earns him £100,000 for the world rankings. He therefore stays top of the world rankings. With nearly £3,000,000 in prize money, he now leads number two, Luke Humphries, by more than £1.6 million.

The top three is still completed by Gian van Veen. Van Veen reached the semifinals last weekend and is now just under £300,000 behind Humphries.

Little else changes. As this was only the second year that ranking points were available at the Masters, no one had a result to defend on the biennial ranking; players could only earn money for the world rankings. Michael van Gerwen lost immediately in the opening round to Damon Heta last weekend, yet he remains fourth in the world rankings. Mighty Mike has just over a £60,000 lead over number five, Jonny Clayton.

Gary Anderson, Stephen Bunting, Ryan Searle remain unchanged with the only mover in the top ten being in eighth in Josh Rock albeit he is technically ninth as he is tied with Searle on £573,000. Danny Noppert completes the top 10 as he aims to get away from both James Wade and Gerwyn Price.

Gerwyn Price reached the semifinals at the Winmau World Masters, where he only narrowly came up short against Littler. The 40-year-old Welshman is currently twelfth in the world rankings with a very small deficit (£6,500) to Noppert.

The biggest jump in the world rankings comes from Wessel Nijman. The 25-year-old Dutchman earned his place in the Winmau World Masters main draw via the qualifier. However, he fell in the opening round there to Clayton. Even so, that qualification pays off for Nijman, as he climbs to 27th in the world rankings and, behind Van Veen, Van Gerwen, Noppert, and Wattimena, is the fifth Dutchman.

Former world champions Peter Wright and Michael Smith both failed to qualify for the Winmau World Masters via the qualifier. Wright (31st) and Smith (32nd) are still just inside the world’s top 32, but they will need some strong results over the coming months to hold that position.

Raymond van Barneveld — another former world champion — was not present at the Winmau World Masters last weekend. Barney is currently 36th in the world rankings and, for now, sits outside the qualifying places for almost all major tournament and will soon be in trouble.

Beyond that, there are few to no changes to note in the world rankings. That’s logical, given the world’s top 24 were seeded directly into the Winmau World Masters and only eight places were available via the qualifier. And as mentioned, no one had ranking points from two years ago to defend.

The next tournament that counts towards the world rankings will be played on Monday, 09/02/2026, when the first Players Championship of the new season takes place in Hildesheim.