There’s no denying that the money in darts is now significant compared to previous years.
Luke Humphries won the 2024 World Championship securing a cool £500k in prize money but just two decades earlier, Phil Taylor only won £50k for the same trophy.
As a result of the lucrative prize money available for the elite darts players in today’s game, we want to take a look at who is currently raking it in 🤑
Below we take a look at the current highest earning darts players based on prize money earned.
Sponsorship and exhibition would be a large chunk of this income and that information isn’t publicly available so this isn’t a darts players ‘rich list’.
More so a list of active players who have earned the most strictly from competing at the oche for the PDC.
The 11 Highest Earning Darts Players Ranked by Prize Money
| Rank | Player | Earnings |
| 11. | Luke Humphries | £2,5651,425 |
| 10. | Dave Chisnall | £2,955,950 |
| 9. | Rob Cross | £3,127,450 |
| 8. | Adrian Lewis | £3,382,385 |
| 7. | Raymond van Barneveld | £3,541,840 |
| 6. | Michael Smith | £4,123,050 |
| 5. | Gerwyn Price | £4,324,250 |
| 4. | James Wade | £4,680,789 |
| 3. | Gary Anderson | £5,219,725 |
| 2. | Peter Wright | £5,967,375 |
| 1. | Michael van Gerwen | £11,524,800 |
11) Luke Humphries – £2,561,425
This was a list of top 10 initially but we made an exception to squeeze in the current World Number 1.
Luke Humphries just gets into this list based on a phenomenal 2023/24 run.
The World Champion and World Number 1 won £763K in 2023 and £1.1m in 2024 (to date) making up the lion share of his career earnings.
During that time he won:
- World Championship (£500k)
- Grand Slam of Darts (£150k)
- World Grand Prix (£120k)
- Players Championship Finals (£120k)
- World Matchplay (£200k)
- World Cup of Darts (£40K)
- UK Open runner-up (£50k)
- Premier League runner-up (£125k)
Considering his consistent dominance in all tournaments though, we don’t think it will be long before he starts pushing up this table with a few more £1m+ years!
10) Dave Chisnall – £2,955,950
Chizzy is now into his 15th season on the Pro Tour and that longevity and consistency has helped him build up an impressive prize fund total over the years.
It’s all the more impressive because Chisnall has never won a PDC major tournament so he’s never experienced the large lump sum like Humphries just had with his £500k World Championship win.
Related – The best players to never win a PDC major
Chizzy has 25 titles to his name so he is a winner, make no doubts about it but had he been able to get over the line in one of the big major tournaments, he’d have a significantly chunkier bank balance as a result.
He’s been runner-up in 6 PDC major finals but it’s not too late for him yet, currently ranked 5th in the Order of Merit, his performances are enough to at least give him the chance of reaching another final and maybe finally winning one…
See also – 6 players we think HAVE to win a major in the future
9) Rob Cross – £3,127,450
Voltage has had one of the best underdog stories of any darts player.
In 2016 he quit his job as an electrician to pursue his dream of being a professional darts player.
Fast forward a few years and he would win the 2018 World Darts Championship beating the greatest to ever do it, Phil Taylor, 7-2 in the final.
Cross has had one of the shorter careers on this list. But, with 4 x PDC major titles and several runner-up placings in both ranked and non-ranked majors, he has quickly accumulated a respectable earnings tally.
8) Adrian Lewis – £3,382,385
Jackpot is a player who’s flame burned one of the brightest but for one of the shortest periods of time.
He went for back to back World Championship titles in 2011 and 2012 to essentially kickstart the end of Phil Taylor’s dominant reign.
Outside of these two victories though, Lewis seemed to take home more runners-up placings than his did winners medals and he often seem to have issues both on and off the oche that impacted his game.
On form though, few were better when in full flow than Jackpot and his hefty earnings over a relatively short time frame (and before the really big money came into darts) are proof of that.
While he’s not played since March 2023, he is still a Tour Card holder which is why he’s just about made the list as an active player though he will lose it at the end of this season.
Adrian Lewis has recently said he could return to darts but fans aren’t sure if we’ll ever see vintage Lewis again…
7) Raymond van Barneveld – £3,541,840
Barney inspired a generation of darts players from the Netherlands (as well as globally) and has enjoyed 30 successful years in both the BDO and PDC.
Unfortunately, the majority of his prime was at a time when Phil Taylor and MVG were essentially unbeatable and claiming all the top prize funds.
With that said, Barney didn’t do too badly for himself.
Reaching 15 PDC major finals and winning 6 of them (including the World Championship in 2007) has allowed RVB to earn a very comfortable living from darts.
It’s also worth noting that this only includes PDC earnings, Barney had a good decade sweeping up in the BDO so his earnings will be quite a bit higher than what’s listed here…
6) Michael Smith – £4,123,050
Much like Humphries, Bully Boy is a recipient of the right place, right time when it comes to making money from darts.
His 2022/23 season earnings included winning the Grand Slam of Darts and World Championship to take his year tally to just shy of £960K.
In his defence though, from 2018-2022 Smith lost 8 PDC major finals and made it to 5 World Series finals (winning 3 of them).
Therefore, he’d already been building up a very respectable prize fund before winning the big one in 2023.
It’s fortunate that he did eventually come good as well because he was close to becoming the biggest ‘nearly man’ the game had ever seen.
Related – 5 best Michael Smith moments
5) Gerwyn Price – £4,324,250
It pays to be a professional sports player and Gerwyn Price is proof.
Price played professional rugby (rugby union & rugby league) and then became a professional darts player in 2014 but it’s from the oche that Price really started to make his fortune.
In the span of 7 years, The Iceman would make it to 15 PDC major finals as well as being a force on the tour with multiple World Series and Euro Tour titles to his name.
This ruthless consistency meant that he had five straight years of earning £500k+ with his best coming in 2021 when he would win the World Championship and earn close to £900k across the year.
His form has dropped off massively in 2024 with him mentioning health issues and stating he has lacked motivation but if he can find a way to get back to his best, his dominance on the tour will be financially rewarding for it.
Read also: 6 times Gerwyn Price SHOCKED darts fans
4) James Wade – £4,680,789
Mr. Consistent aka The Machine.
James Wade has won the third most of any PDC player, second only to Taylor and MVG.
He has 38 PDC titles and just shy of 20 runner-up placings. Having competed in the PDC for 18 years, his consistency and deep tournament runs have allowed him to build a sizable figure from prize money.
For all his success though, he could have earned far more and that’s because he’s the only player on this list to never win a World Championship.
We’ve seen from previous entries on this list that just a single World Championship can seriously propel you up the earning rankins.
For a player that’s won essentially everything else, he was only ever able to make it to the semi-finals of the World Championships.
This is probably the only reason he’s not higher on this list or talked about as one of the game’s greats, even though his numbers and accolades say otherwise…
See also – Best players to NEVER win a World Championship
3) Gary Anderson – £5,219,725
Similar to Wade, Anderson is a darting stalwart who has been through the BDO and PDC eras winning pretty much everything there is to win during that time.
Like Lewis, Anderson is a 2 x World Champion which seriously boosted his earning but unlike Lewis, Anderson has had a much longer career at the top of the game and as a result he’s earned some serious prize money during that period.
Surprisingly, his best spell (for earnings) came during 2017/18 where he went to several finals and earned £750k all without having deep runs in the World Championship.
For reference he’s won two and had three runner-up placings at the World Championships so had he timed them a bit later in his career he would likely be ahead of number 2 on this list 👀
2) Peter Wright – £5,967,375
Rob Cross was a great underdog story and Peter Wright is proof that it’s never too late to pursue greatness in darts.
He won his first World Championship in 2020 aged 49, pocketing £500k for his efforts. He then repeated this a few years later aged 51 earning the same amount.
Wright had not been on the scene quite as long as Anderson had but from 2014-2019 he had 12 runner-up placings in PDC majors and only a single win at the UK Open in 2017.
From 2020 to 2023 though, he flipped the script completely winning 7 majors and only had a single runner-up finish.
This change of form made him a firm fan favourite and the timing also couldn’t have been more perfect.
Had his form been reversed his earnings would have been much lower but as they say, timing is everything and as a result he currently sits as the second highest earner from active players whilst also being one of the oldest.
1) Michael van Gerwen – £11,524,800
Having earned almost double that of second place on this list, MVG is by far the highest earner in modern darts and has also earned the most prize money of any darts players in history.
He hasn’t won as much as Phil Taylor but MVG timed his dominance to be more lucrative when it came to prize money.
From 2016 to 2019, MVG earned over £1m in prize money with 2019 being his best earning year passing £1.5m.
He has 156 titles (47 of which are from major tournaments) alongside dozens of runner-up placings. They are staggering numbers for someone who dominated the game at the perfect time to maximise financially.
Competition between players is much closer now so while prize money has increased, no one is able to win at the scale that Michael has.
There hasn’t been a consecutive World Championship winner since Gary Anderson in 2015/16 so it’s hard to imagine anyone catching up to MVG in the next decade even with the lump sums you get from a big tournament win.
This is especially true considering the fact that he is still winning titles despite not being the force he once was.
Just to leave you with one last note, using the same data as we used above, Phil Taylor is documented as having earned £7,517,475 in career prize money.
This means that the winningest player of all time would have only made it to second on this list due to the era’s he competed in…
Just goes to show what a lucrative time it is to be a darts player!
NOTE – All statistics sourced from and courtesy of Darts Orakel – correct as of 03/10/2024.
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