The 2025 Grand Slam of Darts concluded last night as Luke Littler retained his title, beating Luke Humphries 16-11 in the final and overtaking him as the new world number one.
Luke Humphries was in his third consecutive major ranking final, however, it wasn’t enough to retain his world number one spot as the 18 year old world champion finally ascended to the top of the ranking ladder.
Luke Littler fulfils his darting destiny and becomes the new world number one 👏
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 16, 2025
Six televised ranking titles at just 18 years old! 🤯
Darting phenom! ☢️ pic.twitter.com/0KlYAeoXbY
Between the pair, at least one has been in the final of every ranking major tournament in 2025 so far and between them, the World Cup of Darts was the only major tournament (non-ranked) when neither featured.
It seems likely that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future but the unique format of the Grand Slam of Darts having group stages, there have been some upsets elsewhere in the player field.
Failures to qualify, early group stage exits, and some underdog runs this year has seen some interesting movement in the world ranking.
Below are the biggest winners and losers in the PDC Order of Merit rankings following the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts.
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👉 PDC Order of Merit changes following 2025 European Championship
Order of Merit Changes: Losers
Peter Wright: Down 1 Place
Peter Wright failed to qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time since 2013.
Despite never winning this tournament, he’s been a three-time runner-up with his last finals appearance coming in 2021.
It’s been a year of sliding down the rankings for the 2020 and 2022 world champion.
While his drop of a single position to 30th isn’t as significant as the 12 place drop he suffered after an early exit at the 2025 European Championship a few weeks ago, he’s now in a very tricky position in the rankings…
Wright is now just £15.5k ahead of 33rd place Ricardo Pietreczko. Falling out of the top 32 in the rankings is typically a tough spot to then climb the rankings again without a major title win.
It would see him facing the top ranked players very early in tournament rounds as opposed to when he was the one of those top ranked players just a few years ago (2nd in 2022).
He will no longer be defending large prize money moving forward which should mean less pressure going into tournaments but at this moment in time, it’s hard to see Snakebite getting back up the rankings.
Rob Cross: Down 7 Places
Similar to Wright, Rob Cross was another big name that failed to qualify for the tournament this year, his first time since 2017.
Cross has also been a runner-up in this tournament back in 2023, but unlike Wright, Cross suffered a much larger drop down the rankings due to needing to defend this prize money.
Cross started the year ranked 4th in the OoM and won the first Players Championship event of 2025, but having failed to make it to a quarter-final appearance in a major tournament and dropping 8 places after failing to qualify for the Grand Slam, he now finds himself in 16th place.
Since winning the 2018 World Championship, Voltage has been a familiar face in the latter stages of major tournaments and also invitational major events like the Premier League and World Series of Darts.
Being ranked 16th and going into the 2026 World Championship defending a semi-final finish is not looking good for Cross and he could see a further drop going into the new year.
Without a major win, it’s hard to see Cross moving back up the rankings in the near future and shows just how volatile the rankings can be for players at the top defending big prize money.
Luke Humphries: Down 1 Place
Luke Humphries made the final of the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts. Appearing in the ‘losers’ section of this list is not reflective of his performance or even the size of the position drop.
Down a single place is pretty insignificant in the OoM rankings, however, it’s the perception of the drop that is so impactful for Humphries in this scenario.
After winning three major finals in 2023 and going on to become the 2024 world champion, Luke Humphries has been an elite darts player and has put his title haul amongst the best players ever in just a short few years.
The emergence of Luke Littler put serious pressure on his potential dominance in the game though.
For most of 2025, Humphries has been trying to defend prize money he won in 2023 while Luke Littler continued to add money without defending anything with it being just his second year as a professional player.
Littler making the final last night was enough to displace Humphries as the world number one but winning the final meant that he put a sizable gap between the pair (£161.5k).
Due to his consistency, it seems unlikely that Humphries will drop out of the top 2 anytime soon but in order to reclaim the top spot in darts, winning the 2026 World Championship seems like the only realistic option for Cool Hand now.
Order of Merit Changes: Winners
Michael Smith: Up 2 Places
Michael Smith has consistently featured on the losers side of this list throughout 2025.
The 2023 world champion ended 2024 at 2nd in the rankings and found himself at 29th just a few weeks ago.
It’s arguably the fastest and largest drop we’ve seen from a former world number one but his issues off the oche have also played a large part in this.
Multiple injuries and self-confessed complacency have led to this landslide down the rankings but the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts will offer some hope to Bullyboy.
He qualified from a tough group featuring Luke Humphries and Nathan Aspinall and went on to beat Chris Dobey to earn a quarter-final place.
*Though his win over Dobey had one of the most excruciating deciding legs in recent memory…
SMITH SOMEHOW GETS OVER THE LINE! 🤯
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 12, 2025
INCREDIBLE DRAMA!
Michael Smith survives ELEVEN match darts in a REMARKABLE decider to edge out a shell-shocked Chris Dobey!
📺 https://t.co/INctXCEkdB #GSOD | R2 pic.twitter.com/0Juqd8z0SN
A loss to Luke Humphries in the QF will have been disappointing for Smith but he moves up to 28th in the rankings and can have some momentum to build on now.
Wessel Nijman: Up 3 Places
Like Smith, Wessel Nijman had a tough group to qualify from featuring Josh Rock and Gian van Veen, two of the most in-form players of 2025.
Nijman is a player who has been performing very well on the ProTour winning Players Championship events 30 and 34 in the latter part of this year but he’s not yet been able to translate this to the large TV events.
Wins over Josh Rock and Lisa Ashton had him qualify out of the group but he would then lose to eventual tournament winner Luke Littler in the second round.
Some players jumped more positions than Nijman in the rankings, but his movement up 3 places was enough to put him into 31st and break to top 32.
If he can build on his floor event form, it won’t be surprising to see him move further up the rankings over the next year.
Gerwyn Price: Up 4 Places
Gerwyn Price loves the Grand Slam of Darts. He’s won the tournament the joint-second most in history with three wins coming in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Having failed to qualify last year though in what was a very below par year for the Welshman (by his typical standards), Price was back in top form for this year’s tournament.
Iceman lost his first match in a shock 5-4 loss to Rick Evans but would go on to beat James Wade and Stafan Bellmont to finish top of Group D.
He’d then beat Martin Schindler and Rick Evans before losing to Luke Humphries 16-13 in the semi-final.
This was enough to move him back into the top 10 moving up 4 places to 10th.
We mentioned in the last OoM update list that he isn’t defending much prize money moving forward so has something of a ‘free hit’ over the next year. If he can maintain his 2025 form then pushing top 4 is a realistic possibility.
See also – Gerwyn Price labels Beau Greaves 2026 Premier League talk a ‘joke’
Danny Noppert: Up 4 Places
Danny Noppert is a player that tends to fly under the radar a bit in the darting world.
He’s been a consistent top 16 and even top 8 player since 2022 but 2025 has been a very solid year for the Dutchman.
A semi-final finish in the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts was his 5th semi-final finish in major tournaments this year.
That’s a level of consistency on par with the two Luke’s, though the results are just a level below these two who are making it to finals rather than semi’s.
Still, Noppert has steadily been climbing the ranks this year and this latest finish moves him up 4 places to 7th and has people calling for a Premier League inclusion next year.
He’s only a few thousand away from James Wade in 6th and a major title could have him break the top 4.
He’s already won one as the 2022 UK Open so has the ability and history but to make it past either Luke is proving unlikely at present…
Luke Littler: Up 1 Place
He only moved up a single place but after winning the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts, Luke Littler is now the number one ranked player in the world.
He said that was his aim after becoming world champion earlier this year so his position as best darts player in the world would be reflected in the rankings.
Since bursting onto the scene last year, this seemed inevitable.
Littler has gone back-to-back winning the Grand Slam of Darts and hasn’t lost a match in this tournament format.
His tournament average was 101.71 and while some players looked like pushing him with early leads, over the longer-leg format the Nuke looked unbeatable.
Littler is now top with £1,850,500 in ranking prize money and has the Players Championship Finals to come in a few weeks where he can further add to this without defending any money.
With the 2026 World Championship offering £1,000,000 in prize money to the winner, a win for Littler will put him at an untouchable position in the rankings.
Order of Merit Changes: Noteworthy
Outside of the top 32 players in the rankings, there were some sizable movements.
Ricky Evans making the quarter-finals has seen him move up 6 places to 40th.
Lukas Wenig was ranked outside 70th going into this tournament but a surprise run for the German saw him top Group H ahead of Danny Noppert and Jonny Clayron and a win over compatriot Niko Springer put him into the quarter-finals.
He’d eventually lose to Danny Noppert but this performance has given him a big jump in rankings moving up 8 places to 63rd.
Jurjen van der Velde was another surprise performer finishing second in a very tough group featuring Chris Dobey, Damon Heta and 2024 Grand Slam runner-up Martin Lukeman.
He’d go on to lose 10-3 to Luke Humphries but he has now risen the most of any player in the rankings, up 31 places to 116th.
Beau Greaves has had a similar rise. She finished 3rd in a group featuring Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson and the recent Tour Card holder moved up 20 places to 120th.
There’s high expectations to see how she performs on the ProTour in 2026 after registering 100+ averages and pushing two of the greatest darts players of all time to deciding legs last week.
The full updated rankings list for the top 32 can be found below:
| Rank | Player | Prize Money |
| 1 | Luke Littler | £1,850,500 |
| 2 | Luke Humphries | £1,689,000 |
| 3 | Michael van Gerwen | £741,250 |
| 4 | Stephen Bunting | £607,250 |
| 5 | Jonny Clayton | £563,500 |
| 6 | James Wade | £534,250 |
| 7 | Danny Noppert | £530,750 |
| 8 | Gian van Veen | £520,000 |
| 9 | Chris Dobey | £516,750 |
| 10 | Gerwyn Price | £497,500 |
| 11 | Josh Rock | £497,000 |
| 12 | Ross Smith | £457,750 |
| 13 | Damon Heta | £456,000 |
| 14 | Gary Anderson | £444,500 |
| 15 | Martin Schindler | £441,250 |
| 16 | Rob Cross | £432,500 |
| 17 | Mike De Decker | £413,500 |
| 18 | Dave Chisnall | £394,500 |
| 19 | Ryan Searle | £393,000 |
| 20 | Jermaine Wattimena | £383,000 |
| 21 | Nathan Aspinall | £380,000 |
| 22 | Ryan Joyce | £358,500 |
| 23 | Dimitri Van den Bergh | £345,250 |
| 24 | Luke Woodhouse | £344,000 |
| 25 | Daryl Gurney | £339,500 |
| 26 | Cameron Menzies | £325,250 |
| 27 | Ritchie Edhouse | £316,500 |
| 28 | Michael Smith | £313,500 |
| 29 | Dirk van Duijvenbode | £309,750 |
| 30 | Peter Wright | £295,000 |
| 31 | Wessel Nijman | £292,750 |
| 32 | Joe Cullen | £288,500 |
If you missed the action, you can check out the highlights from the final provided by the PDC below:
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