ProTour Order of Merit Update: Ross Smith and Luke Woodhouse thrive as Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen sit way outside top 10

This week's Players Championship tournaments in Milton Keynes have once again led to significant changes in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit.

The Pro Tour ranking is based on prize money earned in Players Championship events and European Tour tournaments. This ranking is particularly important for players who do not qualify directly for major tournaments through the regular Order of Merit.

For some time now, the standings have been led by Wessel Nijman, who has already won five Players Championship titles and one European Tour event in 2026. With £270,000 in prize money, Nijman holds a lead of nearly £100,000 over his nearest challenger.

Second place has, since this week, been occupied by Ross Smith, who is also enjoying a highly successful season. He continued in that vein having won Players Championship 20 this week and now has three ranking titles to his name this year. With £189,250 in earnings, he sits second in the standings. Gerwyn Price is third on £174,750, followed closely by Chris Dobey on £174,000.

New to the top 10 is Luke Woodhouse, who surprisingly claimed the title at the Baltic Sea Darts Open in Kiel last weekend. The victory earned him £35,000 in prize money, taking his total to £167,250. Stephen Bunting sits sixth with £164,000.

World number two Luke Humphries is only 11th in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit, largely because he skips many Pro Tour events. The same is even more true for world number one Luke Littler, who can only be found in 25th place on the Pro Tour ranking.

Well-known names such as James Wade, Jonny Clayton and Nathan Aspinall occupy positions 12 through 14, while Andrew Gilding and Gian van Veen complete the top 16.

Michael van Gerwen is down in 31st place, but he has relatively little prize money to defend on the Pro Tour for the remainder of the year. As a result, there is a strong possibility that "Mighty Mike" will climb the rankings during the second half of the season.

Another major winner this week was Jeffrey de Graaf. On Tuesday, he won a Players Championship event for the second time in his career, earning £15,000 in prize money. De Graaf now sits 37th in the rankings, ahead of established names such as Gary Anderson (39th) and Michael Smith (40th).

Other climbers since the last update include Josh Rock who moves up to 10th from 21st previously last month, while Kevin Doets continues to shine. 'Hawkeye' is very much the epitome of a man on form winning a maiden ProTour and is now up to 9th in said rankings. William O'Connor too is very much one to look out for, he is up to 19th after a steady month.

Cristo Reyes too is up to 45th up 27 spots to 45th. He is very much part of a growing cluster of new Tour Card holders shining while huge drops include Mike de Decker down from 35th to 48th, Brendan Dolan has gone down from 42nd to 63rd. While Peter Wright continues to plummet down from 67th to 70th, Scott Williams too who was high up in these rankings not so long ago now inhabits a different space of 68th going down 15.