Luke Littler's low ranking in new PDC list despite incredible breakthrough year
Luke Littler's meteoric rise in darts has seen him take his place on the PDC's Order of Merit but the teen sensation will need to wait longer to feature high on the list
Luke Littler's incredible breakthrough year has only been enough to rank him 22nd in the new PDC Order of Merit.
The 17-year-old as enjoyed an incredible rise in 2024, beginning the year as runner-up in the World Championships on debut before going on to become the Premier League champion A flurry of impressive performances during his first year on the PDC tour has not been enough to see him ranked near the likes of Luke Humphries, Michael Smith or Michael van Gerwen however.
The Order of Merit is based upon prize money won in ranking tournaments over a two-year period', and does not include the likes of the Premier League, Masters, or World Series Finals. Instead it is competitions such as the UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals which are taken into account.
Littler is also at a disadvantage having not played in a rankings event before the last 12 months. The Nuke has still notched a cool £343,000 in prize money that qualifies for the table.
That is well short of those at the top of the table however. Humphries has raked in a monumental £1,647,250, while Bully Boy Smith managed to make seven figures too, earning £1,057,750.
Van Gerwen is joined by Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall to round off the top five. The Dutch superstar nears the £1million mark but earnings drop to near half of that mark from there.
Littler most recently made the final of the German Darts Championship, where he took on Peter Wright. The teenager held a 5-2 leads before Snakebite came back to take the victory 8-5.
Wright is ranked 10th on the Order of Merit, earning £496,000 in the last two-year period. The veteran came through with victory over Little despite averaging 97 compared to his opponent's 106.87.
“I just kept believing in myself,” Wright said after his win. “Luke is a fantastic dart player and he was blowing me off the board with 180s, but I thought if I could keep with him, I might get back into it.
“This means a lot to me. Luke is distraught because he wants to win. He’s a fighter, he’s a winner, and he’ll be back and beating us all again soon!”
| 1 | Luke Humphries | £1,647,250 |
| 2 | Michael Smith | £1,057,750 |
| 3 | Michael van Gerwen | £975,500 |
| 4 | Rob Cross | £591,500 |
| 5 | Nathan Aspinall | £551,750 |
| 6 | Gerwyn Price | £533,000 |
| 7 | Dave Chisnall | £520,250 |
| 8 | Jonny Clayton | £509,500 |
| 9 | Damon Heta | £502,750 |
| 10 | Peter Wright | £496,000 |
| 11 | Ross Smith | £481,750 |
| 12 | Dimitri Van den Bergh | £471,250 |
| 13 | Chris Dobey | £441,750 |
| 14 | Stephen Bunting | £414,000 |
| 15 | Danny Noppert | £412,250 |
| 16 | Joe Cullen | £402,250 |
| 17 | Josh Rock | £395,500 |
| 18 | James Wade | £375,750 |
| 19 | Andrew Gilding | £369,000 |
| 20 | Ryan Searle | £368,000 |
| 21 | Dirk van Duijvenbode | £357,750 |
| 22 | Luke Littler | £343,000 |
| 23 | Gary Anderson | £338,500 |
| 24 | Martin Schindler | £334,250 |
| 25 | Gabriel Clemens | £300,500 |
| 26 | Krzysztof Ratajski | £289,000 |
| 27 | Daryl Gurney | £287,250 |
| 28 | Raymond van Barneveld | £273,750 |
| 29 | Brendan Dolan | £269,250 |
| 30 | Jose De Sousa | £209,000 |
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