The 2025 World Matchplay concluded last night as Luke Littler became the youngest ever winner in what has been arguably the best Matchplay competition of all time…
Littler completed his triple crown with an 18-13 win over James Wade in the final. The win over Wade made him the youngest ever winner whilst poetically beating the former ‘youngest ever winner’ in claiming the title.
What a performance. What a player! 👏
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 27, 2025
Luke Littler lifts the iconic Phil Taylor Trophy for the first time in his young career! pic.twitter.com/mdHyMGRnlI
The tournament had upsets, bust-ups (no shock it was Price v Gurney), the most 180’s ever produced, and a great balance of emerging talent and veteran players having deep tournament runs.
As always with a big major tournament, there’s been some movement in the rankings so below we take a look at the biggest winners and losers in terms of ranking changes on the PDC Order of Merit.
Data for the full ranking changes sourced from dartsrankings.com
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Order of Merit Changes: Losers
Joe Cullen: Down 5 Places
Joe Cullen came into the World Matchplay defending £50,000, after an impressive semi-final run in 2023.
The £10,000 guaranteed for qualification meant it was really £40,000 to defend but Cullen is in a tricky spot in the rankings.
He went into the tournament in 24th but following the conclusion of the Matchplay, there is just £50,000 separating 24th and 31st place on the list.
This shows how tough the competition is to stay inside the top 32 and how difficult it can be to break away.
A first round loss to James Wade, the eventual runner-up, was not the result Cullen needed and he drops -5 places to 29th.
There’s now £40,000 separating him and 33rd so he’ll need to put in some big performances on the ProTour before he once again has to defend £50,000 at the World Grand Prix…
Jonny Clayton: Down 3 Places
Jonny Clayton was one of the stars of the tournament with wins over Martin Schindler, Mike De Decker and Stephen Bunting before an eventual semi-final loss to James Wade.
The SF was one of the games of the tournament as Clayton pushed Wade to deciding legs, ultimately losing 20-18.
As Clayton was a finalist in 2023, he lessened the damage from a rankings drop with a good run so drops just -3 places to 8th.
Clayton is one of the form players of 2025 having made the final at the World Master, semi-final at the UK Open and now another semi-final at the World Matchplay.
He’s vocal about wanting to be back in the Premier League though and will likely need a major win to push himself into the top 4 if he’s to achieve that.
Nathan Aspinall: Down 16 Places
By far the player most impacted by the ranking changes is the 2023 World Matchplay winner Nathan Aspinall.
A first round loss to Wessel Nijman has seen The Asp plummet -16 places in the rankings and now sits outside the top 20 at 23rd.
He’s just behind Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh in a trio we didn’t expect to see outside the top 16 at the beginning of the year…
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Most disappointing for Aspinall will be the drop coming when he’s having a good year.
Making the semi-final of the Premier League when fans and even players criticised his inclusion alongside two European Tour wins has him as a form player this year.
Injuries last year and £190,000 coming off his rankings have hit hard and he’ll need to make up £100k+ in order to get back into the top 16 now, something that HAS to be the aim for him.
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Order of Merit Changes: Winners
Gian van Veen: Up 4 Places
Gian van Veen lifted his first professional title this year at Players Championship 6 as the 2024 World Youth Championship winner continues to make strides on his promising potential.
See more – Gian van Veen DOMINATING stats in Players Championship events this year
A quarter-final run at the UK Open has been matched with another quarter-final run at the World Matchplay.
A first round win over reigning champion and world number 1 Luke Humphries was arguably the biggest upset of the tournament.
That’s no disrespect to Van Veen, more so that Humphries was defending the title and 2nd favourite for the tournament.
The run sees him move up +4 places to 18th in the rankings, just over £30k away from a top 16 place.
He wouldn’t be defending any money at the World Grand Prix though so has the opportunity to secure himself as a top 16 player and continue to establish himself as a top player in the game.
Josh Rock: Up 6 Places
Similar to Gian van Veen, Josh Rock is living up to his potential with another impressive tournament in 2025.
The 2022 World Youth Championship winner was topped for big things after making it to the quarter-final of the Grand Slam of Darts in 2022, however, 2024 so a lot of early exits in major tournaments.
2025 is a different story though as he’s now gone to back-to-back semi-finals at the UK Open and World Matchplay whilst also picking up his first major title (non-ranked) at the World Cup of Darts.
He admitted to management/sponsor issues in the past but is now settled with Target darts and looked like a ranked major title is inevitable after his performances this week.
He was involved in one of the best legs of all time and jumped +6 places in the rankings to 11th (only £6k away from top 10).
Luke Littler: Unchanged
For Luke Littler it was business as usual. He was favourite going into the tournament and despite a few slow starts in some games where he found himself 5-0 down, he never really looked like losing this week.
He completed the triple crown, became the youngest ever World Matchplay winner and set a new 180 record for total hit in the tournament at 64 x 180s.
The world number 2 remains unchanged in the rankings but is a definite winner. Littler didn’t play in the 2023 World Matchplay so the win means he adds £200k to his ranking tally and closes the gap between himself and Luke Humphries.
Humphries early exit saw him drop £40k from his rankings and Littler now moves within £300k of the top spot.
Littler still has several major tournaments coming up where he isn’t defending any prize money though (while Humphries is defending a lot), so he can continue to add to his tally and it seems inevitable that by the end of the year, he’ll be number 1.
James Wade: Up 3 Places
Arguably the biggest winner is James Wade. The Machines is having something of a darting resurgence as he goes back-to-back in major finals, unfortunately losing both to Luke Littler…
He also won his first ProTour title since 2022 winning Players Championship 19 a few weeks back and Wade now moves up +4 places to break to top 5.
Wade finished the 2023 season in 19th and 2024 season 16th so this rise in rankings is clearly reflective of his form.
He registered his best ever Matchplay average in the first round and seems determined to crack the top 4 and work his way back into the Premier League and World Series.
Something he said the PDC would be reluctant to let happen 👀
Read More – James Wade believes PDC would ‘find a way to leave him out’ if he reached top 4 in rankings
Elsewhere movement was relatively marginal. Gerwyn Price moved up +3 places to 6th following a quarter-final run as he also looks to push into the top 4.
Peter Wright drops -1 to 16th as his first round exit sees him dangerously close to dropping outside the top 16 now.
Despite a first round exit, Rob Cross moved back into the top 10 at 9th. He benefitted from a Damon Heta first round exit, whereby he needed a QF run to defend his 2023 prize money (though Heta remains unchanged at 10th).
The likes of Brendan Dolan, Krzystof Ratajski, Kim Huybrechts and Jose De Sousa also continue their gradual drop down the rankings having failed to qualify for the tournament.
To see the full rankings as the stand, check out the official Order of Merit provided by the PDC here
Also If you missed it, check out the highlights from the final provided by the PDC below:
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