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The PDC World Rankings, known for sponsorship purposes as the Werner Rankings Ladder,^[1] is the world ranking system for professional darts players used by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), which ranks players according to the prize money won in PDC ranking tournaments. These world rankings are used to determine qualification and seeding for the televised ranking tournaments as well as the awarding of PDC Tour Cards at the end of the season.^[2] The format has been used since the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship, superseding the original PDC World Ranking system established in 1993, where points were awarded for performances in tournaments according to their relative prestige.^[3][4] Upon the introduction of the rankings, the first player to hold the number one rank was Alan Warriner.^[5] Since 1993, thirteen other players have held the top spot, including Luke Littler, the current world number one.^[6] Alongside the main ranking, the PDC also operates several secondary rankings which count prize money won on specific PDC Tours and may also offer qualification to specific televised events.

The Professional Darts Corporation adopted the current Order of Merit system in 2007. In this system, the total prize money won in PDC ranking events over the eligibility period is counted. For PDC Tour Card holders, this eligibility period is either the previous two years or since the player was awarded a tour card, whichever is shorter.^[4] The PDC World Darts Championship is considered last event of the season, after which the year-end Order of Merit is calculated and players in the top 64 offered a Tour Card for the following year.^[4] New Tour Card holders start on £0, even if they held a Tour Card in the previous season but failed to make the top 64, resulting in them having to regain their Tour Card through the qualifying tournament, Q School.^[4] Players without Tour Cards who earn money in ranking tournaments (such as Luke Littler in the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship) are eligible to be ranked during the season,^[7] though if they fail to reach the top 64 at the end of the year, their ranking money is reset to £0.^[4] If two players are tied and need separating for seeding or event qualification, the tie is broken by the player with the highest total earnings across the previous four ranking tournaments. If this fails to break the tie, players’ prize money is counted back from the most recent event until a tie can be broken, with the possibility of a play-off if this cannot break the tie.^[4]

The PDC holds ranked and unranked tournaments. Ranking tournaments are those which all PDC Tour Card holders are eligible to participate in or qualify for, while unranked tournaments are invitational and do not count toward the Order of Merit. Currently, the Premier League, World Series of Darts events and the World Cup of Darts are the only unranked PDC tournaments with Tour Card Holder participation outside of the secondary tours.^[4]

Prize money awarded towards 2026 PDC Order of Merit in ranking tournaments (£1000s)^[4]

Tournament	Total	Winner	Finalist	Top 4	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 48	Top 64	Top 96	Top 128	Prelim. Top 16	Prelim. Top 32	Prelim. Top 64
2026 Prize Money
PDC Premier Events (2026)
World Championship	5,000	1,000	400	200	100	60	35	—N/a	25	—N/a	15	—N/a
World Masters	500	100	50	30	17.5	10	5	—N/a				2.5	1	0.75
UK Open	750	120	60	35	20	12.5	7.5	—N/a	3	2	1.25	—N/a
World Matchplay	1,000	225	125	65	35	22.5	12.5	—N/a	—N/a
World Grand Prix	750	150	80	50	35	20	7.5	—N/a
European Championship	750	150	80	50	35	20	7.5	—N/a
Grand Slam of Darts[A]	1,000	200	100	60	35	20	—N/a	5[B]	—N/a
Players Championship Finals	750	130	70	40	27.5	15	7	—N/a	4	—N/a
PDC Pro Tour
15 European Tours	230	35	15	10	8	5	3.5[C]	2	—N/a	—N/a
34 Players Championships	150	15	10	6.5	4	3	2	—N/a	1.25	—N/a
Total 2026 payouts	19,484	3,110	1,530	1,802	2,244	2,856	3,240	752	2,533	64	1,000	40	16	12
2025 Prize Money
PDC Premier Events (2025)
World Championship	2,500	500	200	100	50	35	25	—N/a	15	—N/a	7.5	—N/a
World Masters	500	100	50	30	12.5	10	5	—N/a				2.5	1	0.75
UK Open	600	110	50	30	15	10	5	—N/a	2.5	1.5	1	—N/a
World Matchplay	800	200	100	50	30	15	10	—N/a
World Grand Prix	600	120	60	40	25	15	7.5	—N/a
European Championship	600	120	60	40	25	15	7.5	—N/a
Grand Slam of Darts[A]	650	150	70	50	25	12	5[D]	—N/a
Players Championship Finals	600	120	60	30	20	10	6.5	—N/a	3	—N/a
PDC Pro Tour[E]
14 European Tours	175	30	12	8.5	6	4	2.5[C]	1.25	—N/a
34 Players Championships	125	15	10	5	3.5	2.5	1.5	—N/a	1.0	—N/a
Total 2025 payouts	14,625	2,670	1,246	1,401	1,682	2,102	2,448	17.5	2,064	48	992	20	16	24
Prize money from the 2024 season still contributing to the Order of Merit, where differing from 2025 prize money[10][11]
World Championship	2,500	500	200	100	50	35	25	—N/a	15	7.5	—N/a

In addition to the main two-year ranking, the PDC also operates three rankings for subsets of the PDC Tour and four rankings for secondary tours. These rankings offer qualification to televised events and are the basis for seeding in tournaments. Additionally, some secondary tours offer Tour Cards. These are secondary Orders of Merit are the:

• Pro Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Players Championships and European Tour events over a 12-month rolling period. In addition to qualification for televised tournaments, this ranking determines the seedings for Players Championship events.^[13]
• European Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in European Tour events during the calendar year. The top 32 on this ranking list qualify for the European Championship at the end of the year, where all players are seeded according to their European Tour ranking.^[14]
• Players Championship Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Player Championship events during the calendar year. The top 64 on this ranking qualify for the Players Championship Finals. Similarly to the European Championship, all players are seeded according to their rank.^[15]
• World Series Order of Merit, which counts points earned in a calendar year in the world series. The top 8 on this ranking are seeded for the World Series of Darts Finals.
• Challenge Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Challenge Tour, a secondary tour open to players without Tour Cards that participated in the most recent Q-School. Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments and receive Tour Cards, depending on their rank.^[16] The Challenge Tour Order of Merit also acts as a reserve list for Pro Tour events.^[4]
• Development Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Development Tour, a secondary open to some Tour Card holders and players without Tour Card aged 16–23. Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments and receive Tour Cards, depending on their rank.^[17]
• Women’s Series Order of Merit, which counts money earned in a calendar year on the Women’s Series, a secondary tour for female players.^[4] Top ranked players at the end of the year may qualify for televised tournaments, depending on their rank.^[18]
• Women’s World Matchplay Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Women’s Series earned over an approximately 12-month period prior to the Women’s World Matchplay, to which the top 8 players are invited.^[4]

Qualification and seedings to PDC events via PDC Orders of Merit^[4]

Tournament	Qualifiers (seeds)
	By Order of Merit								Other
	Main	PT	ET	PC	WS	CT	DT	WO
Ranked televised events
World Championship	40 (32)	40	—N/a			3	3	3	39
World Masters	24 (16)[a]	—N/a				[b]	[b]	[b]	8[c]
UK Open	TCH	—N/a				8	8	—N/a	16
World Matchplay	16 (16)	16	—N/a
World Grand Prix	16 (16)	16	—N/a
European Championship	—N/a		32 (32)	—N/a
Grand Slam of Darts	0 (8)	—N/a				1	1	1	21
Players Championship Finals	—N/a			64 (64)	—N/a
PDC Pro Tour
European Tour events	16 (16)	16	—N/a						16
Players Championship events	TCH	0 (32)	—N/a
Non-ranked televised events
Premier League Darts	4	—N/a							4
World Series of Darts Finals	—N/a				8 (8)	—N/a			24
World Cup of Darts	[d]	—N/a							[d]
Tour Cards	64	—N/a				2	2	—N/a	60[e]

Prior to 2007, a ranking point system was used where ranking points were awarded according to the stage reached in a tournament and the relative prestige of the tournament.^[21] There was no limit on the number of tournaments which counted to the tally, which meant that the top-ranked players were not necessarily the best-performing in the major tournaments. For instance, Colin Lloyd was the world number one player in the PDC for most of 2005 and 2006, despite most of the major titles being shared between Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and John Part.^[22]

PDC World Rankings Points System, 2003^[21]

Tournament Category	Winner	Runner-up	Top 4	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 40	Top 64
World Championship	50	40	35	30	24	16	12	[a]
Premier Event	30	24	20	16	12	8	—N/a	[b][c]
Category One	16	12	10	8	6	4	—N/a	[d]
Category Two	8	6	4	3	2	1	—N/a
Category Three	5	4	3	2	1	—N/a

14 players have held the position of World Number One since the World Darts Council started new rankings in 1993. Seven different players held the position in the old points system, and eight players have held the position since the PDC switched to the two-year earnings based Order of Merit system in 2007, with Phil Taylor being the only player to have been number one in both eras.

Notable players not to be ranked world number one in the PDC include: Two-time back-to-back PDC World Champions Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson, 11-time major title winner James Wade and 2018 world champion Rob Cross.^[24]

Player	#	Years in which player stood Number 1
Phil Taylor	13	1996 2000 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Michael van Gerwen	7	2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Alan Warriner	6	1993 1994 1997 1998 2001 2002
Rod Harrington	5	1995 1996 1998 1999 2000
Colin Lloyd	3	2005 2006 2007
Dennis Priestley	2	1994 1995
Peter Manley	2	2000 2001
Gerwyn Price	2	2021 2022
Luke Humphries	2	2024 2025
Luke Littler	2	2025 2026
Raymond van Barneveld	1	2008
John Part	1	2003
Peter Wright	1	2022
Michael Smith	1	2023
Italic indicates the player was reigning world champion that year Bold indicates the player stood number one at the conclusion of that year’s world championship

No.	Player(s)	From		Length	Ref.
1	Alan Warriner	January 1993	Incarnation of the WDC	674 days[A]	[5]
2	Dennis Priestley	6 November 1994	1994 Lada UK Masters	155 days	[5][25]
3	Rod Harrington	10 April 1995	1995 UK Matchplay	479 days[A]	[5][25]
4	Phil Taylor	August 1996		31 days[A]	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner (2)	September 1996		699 days[A]	[5][25]
	Rod Harrington (2)	1 August 1998	1998 World Matchplay	728 days	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (2)	29 July 2000	2000 World Matchplay	57 days	[5][25]
5	Peter Manley	24 September 2000	2000 Windy City Open	399 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner (3)	28 October 2001	2001 World Grand Prix	69 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	5 January 2002	2002 World Championship	28 days	[5][25]
	Alan Warriner (5)	2 February 2002	2002 Eastbourne Open	88 days[A]	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002		248 days[A]	[5][25]
6	John Part	4 January 2003	2003 World Championship	203 days	[5][25]
	Phil Taylor (5)	26 July 2003	2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy	582 days	[5][25]
7	Colin Lloyd	27 February 2005	2005 West Tyrone Open	469 days	[26][25]
	Phil Taylor (6)	11 June 2006	2006 UK Open	7 days	[27][28]
	Colin Lloyd (2)	18 June 2006	2006 Players Championship 3	197 days	[28][25]
	Phil Taylor (7)	1 January 2007	2007 World Championship	365 days	[5][25]
8	Raymond van Barneveld	1 January 2008	2008 World Championship	159 days	[29][25]
	Phil Taylor (8)	8 June 2008	2008 UK Open	2,033 days	[29][30]
9	Michael van Gerwen	1 January 2014	2014 World Championship	2,559 days	[30][31]
10	Gerwyn Price	3 January 2021	2021 World Championship	427 days	[31][32]
11	Peter Wright	6 March 2022	2022 UK Open	140 days	[32][33]
	Gerwyn Price (2)	24 July 2022	2022 World Matchplay	77 days	[33]
	Peter Wright (2)	9 October 2022	2022 World Grand Prix	21 days	[34]
	Gerwyn Price (3)	30 October 2022	2022 European Championship	65 days	[34][35]
12	Michael Smith	3 January 2023	2023 World Championship	365 days	[35]
13	Luke Humphries	3 January 2024	2024 World Championship	683 days	[36][37]
14	Luke Littler	16 November 2025	2025 Grand Slam	214 days	[6]

Key

Before January 2007	Used old points system
Current	Reigning number one on Order of Merit

Sources: ^[23][38]

No.	Player	Total Days at No 1	Longest Consecutive Run
1	Phil Taylor	3323	2033
2	Michael van Gerwen	2559	2559
3	Alan Warriner-Little	1558	699
4	Rod Harrington	1207	728
5	Luke Humphries	683	683
6	Colin Lloyd	666	469
7	Gerwyn Price	569	427
8	Peter Manley	399	399
9	Michael Smith	365	365
10	John Part	203	203
11	Luke Littler	214	214
12	Peter Wright	161	140
13	Raymond van Barneveld	159	159
14	Dennis Priestley	155	155
Active players in bold.

Following the World Darts Council split from the British Darts Organisation between 1992 and 1994, the WDC drew up its first ranking list in the run-up to its inaugural 1994 World Championship. Mike Gregory and Chris Johns later went back to the BDO set up, and Bobby George and many of the non-UK players never competed in the early days of the WDC.^{[citation needed]}

Ranking	Player		Ranking	Player
1	Alan Warriner		16	Jann Hoffmann
2	Rod Harrington		=	Chris Johns
3	Phil Taylor		=	Roland Scholten
4	John Lowe		19	Raymond van Barneveld
5	Mike Gregory		=	Keith Deller
6	Peter Evison		21	Bobby George
7	Kevin Spiolek		22	Per Skau
=	Dennis Priestley		23	Bernd Hebecker
9	Bob Anderson		=	Andree Welge
10	Jocky Wilson		=	Pascal Rabau
11	Jamie Harvey		26	Leo Laurens
12	Eric Bristow		=	Bert Vlaardingerbroek
13	Cliff Lazarenko		=	Tom Kirby
14	Magnus Caris		=	Wayne Weening
=	Steve Beaton		=	Mauro Levy

• PDC website – Rankings