Earlier this year it was announced that the 2026 World Championship would give a record darts prize of £1 million to the winner.
The money in darts is now at an all-time high as the sport continues to grow at a rapid rate. This wasn’t always the case though.
It was hard for darts players to earn a living purely though tournament prize money until the early 2000’s.
The 2010’s, however, is where darts really picked up financially and through this era, some of the best players in the world became multi-millionaires.
*Phil Taylor became a multi-millionaire through prize money sooner than this but he won 75% of all major tournaments in the 2000’s so prize money was heavily skewed towards just him…
In this article, we’ve listed the highest earning darts players of the 2010’s, where all 10 earned at least £1 million in prize money across the decade.
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Highest Earning Darts Players From The 2010’s
10) Michael Smith – £1,664,474
Michael Smith earned his Tour Card in 2011 and would eventually become world champion in 2023.
Bully Boy had most of his success in the 2020’s, however, his consistency on the ProTour throughout the 2010’s laid the foundation for his eventual success and also earned him a very decent living.
In the latter half of the decade, Smith went to the final of the 2018 Premier League and World Series of Darts Finals and the following year he was runner-up in the 2019 World Matchplay and 2019 World Championship (a sign of things to come).
The deep runs combined with Euro Tour titles throughout the decade meant that Smith was able to build both his stage experience and also his bank balance while progressing towards becoming one of the best players in darts.
Smith has been having a drastic downfall in 2025 though. He’s dropped to 28th in the rankings at the time of writing and has admitted to having multiple health/injury issues that he’s battling with.
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9) Dave Chisnall – £1,852,700
Chizzy is a darts stalwart now.
After starting in the BDO and becoming runner-up in the 2010 BDO World Championship, he then earned his PDC Tour Card in 2011 (same time as Michael Smith).
Since turning pro, he’s been one of the most consistent players in darts and was an ever-present in the top 10 rankings throughout the 2010’s.
He’s won dozens of titles on the ProTour but with 6 x runner-up finishes in PDC major finals, Chisnall isn’t far off Terry Jenkins as being considered one of the best players to never win a PDC major title in darts.
Being labelled a ‘nearly man’ isn’t a title you want to your name and Chizzy is well aware of this saying he will keep playing until he finally wins one.
See related – “I won’t stop till I get one” – Dave Chisnall is determined to win a major title in darts
While he’s not been able to lift a big title, Chisnall’s consistency over the years had him earn close to the multi-million mark in prize money during the 2010’s.
8) Simon Whitlock – £2,008,250
At the time of writing this, Simon Whitlock doesn’t have a Tour Card for the PDC but has just won the ANZ Premier League earning him a place at the 2026 World Championship.
The Australian is one of darts biggest cult icons and was a top player in both the BDO and PDC throughout the last few decades.
Despite finishing runner-up at the 2008 BDO World Championship, the 2010’s were the most successful for The Wizard.
After turning pro in 2009, Whitlock would go to the PDC World Championship final but lost out to an unstoppable Phil Taylor.
He’d go to several PDC major finals during the 2010’s and while he was on the losing side on most of these occasions, he did lift a major at the 2012 European Championship.
While Chizzy came close, Whitlock did surpass the multi-million milestone in the 2010’s through prize money alone in what proved to be a lucrative and successful career for Australia’s greatest ever darts player!
7) Raymond van Barneveld – £2,365,400
Raymond van Barneveld went to his first BDO World Championship final in 1995. 30 years later he’s still ranked close to the top 32 players in the world.
His best darting years would be the late 90’s and 2000’s where he would become a five-time world champion across the BDO and PDC.
He won dozens of major titles during that era and while the 2010’s weren’t quite as successful for Barney, his consistency and the higher earning potential during this decade was still very beneficial for the Dutchman.
He won the Grand Slam of Darts in 2012 and the Premier League in 2014 whilst also finishing runner-up at the World Masters in 2015 and 2018.
While titles weren’t as regular as he was used to, Barney was in the last 4 of major tournaments several times each year.
These deep runs had him earn £2.3 million without having too many ‘large’ paydays during this time.
6) James Wade – £2,652,575
Similar to Barney, James Wade has been unbelievably consistent since making the final of the 2006 World Matchplay as a young prospect at the time.
The Machine really has lived up to his nickname, making two PDC major finals in 2025 and currently ranked 7th in the world rankings.
He’s been ranked top 10 for the last few decades (barring a few years) and the 2010’s were arguably his prime.
He won four ranking major titles during this time as well as finishing runner-up on several occasions throughout the decade.
- 2010 World Grand Prix
- 2011 UK Open
- 2014 World Masters
- 2018 European Championship
A dozen titles on the European and Pro Tours also complement just as many semi-final and quarter-final runs in major tournaments during this time.
He was never able to lift the World Championship title which would have given him a bumper lump sum in prize money but for a player who hasn’t lifted this title, he still earned A LOT of prize money despite this!
5) Adrian Lewis – £2,671,750
Adrian Lewis was the first player since Phil Taylor to win back-to-back World Championship titles in 2011 and 2012.
Widely regarded as one of the most naturally gifted darts players of all time, Jackpot was a joy to watch when on top form and his prime years came during just as prize money was increasing in the PDC.
Despite being a two-time world champion, Lewis ‘only’ won four major titles during his career with the 2013 European Championship and 2014 UK Open rounding out his collection.
He was a 14 x major finalist though and most of these also came during the early part of the 2010’s.
From 2011-2014 he was a perennial finalist and while he didn’t have the longevity or consistency as many others on this list, he was electric during his prime.
He admits that his mindset held him back from being more successful during his career but £2.6 million in prize money alone during the 2010’s meant that he was financially more successful than around 98% of darts players.
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4) Peter Wright – £2,931,050
The 2010’s were NOT the most successful years for Peter Wright.
Aged 49, he’d win his first world title in 2020. This was the first of several major titles in the 2020’s, including a second world title.
If you’re wondering how he ranks so highly on this list then, it’s because Snakebite went to a significant number of PDC major finals during the 2010’s.
His record was a complete reversal of the following decade though. In the 2010’s Wright went to 13 major finals but was only able to win a single one of them at the 2017 UK Open.
In the 2020’s he went to 7 finals but only finished runner-up the single time.
13 finals is a lot and Wright was ranked in the top 4 in the world during the prime years of the likes of Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen (while Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis were also still active).
To earn close to £3 million during a period when he only won a single title was telling of the money that was coming into darts this era.
Phil Taylor won more titles than that a decade earlier, yet only earned £30k more across those years.
While he is in a decline at the time of writing this, Wright has vowed to win a third world title in the coming years…
3) Gary Anderson – £3,816,950
Gary Anderson has almost identical career statistics to Peter Wright.
Both are two-time world champions, both have been to 21 PDC major finals and both have won 8 major titles.
The majority of Anderson’s titles came during the 2010’s though.
While the Scotsman beats his compatriot in prize money earned during this period, Snakebite having more success in the 2020’s meant that he’s earned much more in career prize money overall.
We don’t think Anderson will be too disappointed with his earnings somehow.
He became a back-to-back world champion in 2015 and 2016 whilst also making it to the final for a third straight year in 2017, only to finish runner-up to close rival Michael van Gerwen.
All of Anderson’s major titles came during the 2010’s and he also won dozens of ProTour titles on the floor events during this time.
Anderson claims that darts has always been a ‘hobby’ for him and that he didn’t take it as seriously as he could have.
With almost £4 million in prize money earned during the 2010’s, that’s a pretty lucrative hobby to have! 👀
2) Phil Taylor – £4,277,050
Phil Taylor is the most dominant darts player of all time and from the inception of the PDC in 1994, he would win the vast majority of tournaments up until 2012.
The first darts player to become a multi-millionaire, Taylor had arguably the most competition from elite players during the 2010’s.
Despite that – and retiring during this era – The Power was still winning more competitions than most players and earned more during this time than any other player bar one…
In 2010 he won 4/7 PDC ranking major titles, in 2011 he won 4/7 PDC major ranking titles and in 2013 he won 5/7 PDC major ranking titles.
As there are so many multi-time world champions on this list from the 2010’s Taylor himself was ‘only’ able to lift the world title twice during this decade but would still win 7 of his record 16 World Matchplay titles during this time.
See more 👉 6 RIDICULOUS Phil Taylor records that will never be broken
Despite coming to the tail end of his career, you can see how much of a winner he was and this was coming up against the likes of Adrian Lewis, James Wade, Raymond van Barneveld, Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen.
He missed out on the truly large money coming into darts but earning more than £4 million during this highly competitive era would still be good compensation for his achievements in darts.
1) Michael van Gerwen – £7,932,325
A player who seemed to time dominance, success and prize money just right in darts is Michael van Gerwen.
MVG took over from Phil Taylor as the most dominant player in darts after winning the 2014 World Championship.
He won three more major titles that year alongside making it to the final of the World Matchplay, but it was the following years that he truly asserted his dominance in darts.
In 2015 MVG won seven major titles and finished runner-up in two more.
A semi-final finish at the World Championship was his ‘worst’ finish. The following year he won NINE major titles, had two more runner-up finishes and again his only disappointing finish was the third round of the World Championship.
MVG has been to 65 PDC major finals and won 48 major titles during his career and the majority of these titles came in the 2010’s.
He’s the second most accomplished player in darts history behind only Phil Taylor and his success during this era had him earn just shy of £8 million. Almost twice as much as any other player during this time.
He was a three-time world champion and for a period seemed like he could actually break some of Taylor’s records but he’s tapered off slightly in the last few years.
Still, MVG earned a staggering amount of money during his reign of dominance and is a big contributing factor to the growth of darts over the last decade.
Prize money statistics sourced from Darts Orakel and accurate on 20/11/2025
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