Luke Littler won his SIXTH PDC major title of the year last night. He beat Nathan Aspinall 11-8 in the final of the 2025 Players Championship Finals to extend his lead at the top of the world rankings.
It was back-to-back finals appearances at Players Championship Finals for Luke Littler.
The 18-year-old has now finished his final tournament where he was able to add to his ranking prize money without having to defend anything in the process.
It’s fair to say he made the most of the opportunity these last two seasons!
Inevitable.
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 23, 2025
Luke Littler is your 2025 Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals winner, defeating Nathan Aspinall 11-8 in the final 🏆 pic.twitter.com/zF0twiimF7
With a 64 player field and most of the top players participating, the Players Championship Finals don’t see too many big changes when it comes to the PDC Order of Merit rankings.
While there weren’t any monumental ranking drops or rises (+/- 10) amongst the top of the rankings like we’ve seen in recent months, there have still been some noticeable movements following the conclusion of this tournament.
Below, we look at the biggest winners and losers in the rankings following the 2025 Players Championship Finals.
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Order of Merit Changes: Losers
Luke Humphries: Unchanged
Luke Humphries is ranked second in the world so it seems unfair to add him to the ‘losers’ section of this list.
While his position hasn’t changed, this was a tough tournament and result for a player that was world number one just a few weeks ago.
Humphries lost his place to Luke Littler last week after losing to him in the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts final.
See also – Luke Humphries claims he ‘will win worlds’ following final’s loss to Luke Littler
This put him around £160k away from the top spot going into a tournament where he was defending winning prize money from 2023.
He was a back-to-back winner of this tournament the last two years, however, a first round exit to Gian van Veen was a worst-case-scenario for Cool Hand.
His two-year earnings have dropped from £1,689,000 to £1,572,000.
£1.5m is still a hefty figure and more than twice that of Michael van Gerwen, who is third in the rankings.
He’s now just shy of £400k away from Luke Littler though, as the 18-year-old continues to widen the gap between the pair.
Damon Heta: Down 3 Places
Damon Heta started the 2025 season ranked 8th in the world with many calling for his inclusion in the 2025 Premier League.
Around a year ago we were predicting him to be a future ranking major winner due to some impressive performance and tournament runs these last few years.
See more – 6 darts players we think have to win a major title in the future
The season has not gone to plan for The Heat though. A first round exit is his fifth straight first round exit in ranking PDC major events.
Heta has won a few Players Championship titles this season to buffer his earnings, however, he was defending quarter-final prize money at the 2025 Players Championship Finals and a first round loss to Justin Hood has seen him drop 3 places in the rankings to 16th.
There’s not much in prize money separating him from the players around him but he’s almost £100k away from the top 10 now and seems to have lost that early season momentum.
Dave Chisnall: Down 3 Places
Chizzy has been one of the most consistent players in professional darts for well over a decade.
Deep tournament runs and dozens of ProTour titles have kept him consistently inside the top 16 and the vast majority of his career has been inside the top 10.
He’s widely regarded as one of the best players to never win a PDC major title and while he has vowed to keep going ‘until he gets one’, 2025 has been a poor year for him…
He’s not picked up a title (which is rare for him) and has failed to make it to the quarter-final of a major ranking tournament for only the second time in his career.
Like Heta, a first round exit has been punishing for Chizzy.
He drops 3 places to 21st in the rankings. Chisnall was ranked 6th in the world at the end of 2024 so his drop has been sizable.
He’ll need a good run at the 2026 World Championship to put himself in a better position to compete next year.
Order of Merit Changes: Winners
Gerwyn Price: Up 1 Place
A second straight semi-final appearance for Gerwyn Price is a return to form many have been anticipating for The Iceman.
2024 was the first time in his professional career when he either didn’t win a ranking title or at least make it to the quarter-final of a major tournament.
There was ‘retirement talk’ and backlash when he was included in the 2025 Premier League line-up.
However, this year he finished top of the Players Championship Order of Merit and ProTour Order of Merit with several titles to his name.
He’s also been to the latter stages in the majority of major tournaments throughout the year making him one of the best performing players outside of the two Luke’s.
His ranking position may not reflect this due to a poor 2024 campaign but he moves up a place into 9th in the rankings.
Based on his recent form and the fact that he’s only defending prize money from a third round finish at the 2026 World Championship, it won’t be too surprising to see him move towards (or into) the top 4 in rankings at some point within the next six months.
Jermaine Wattimena: Up 1 Place
Like Price, Jermaine Wattimena made it to the semi-finals at the weekend but only moved up a single place in the rankings also.
Similarly to price though, it was a meaningful move as he now sits 19th in the rankings and is in a strong position to push for a top 16 place now.
After making it to the final of the 2024 European Championship last year, Wattimena won his first ranking title this year at Players Championship 23.
The Dutchman has had spells of form but lacked consistency over his several years on the Tour.
2025 has seen him establish himself as a solid top 32 player and a semi-final run beating the likes of Ryan Joyce, Ryan Searle and James Wade on-route will surely give him confidence going into the biggest tournament of the year.
Nathan Aspinall: Up 6 Places
Nathan Aspinall has had a mixed-bag of performances and results over the last few years. Like Price, he struggled in 2024 (due to injury rather than form) and was a heavily criticised inclusion in the 2025 Premier League.
Again, like Price he somewhat proved the doubters wrong as he made it to Finals Night along with the Welshman.
Following a loss a first round exit at the 2025 World Matchplay though – a tournament where he was defending winning prize money – the 2025 World Matchplay champion fell to 23rd in the rankings.
He was ranked inside the top 8 going into that tournament and suffered one of the biggest ranking drops in 2025.
Despite finding himself in a tough ranking spot, Aspinall has built significant momentum this year. Three straight quarter-final runs in major ranking tournaments were followed by his first ever Euro Tour title.
He followed that up with two more to finish top of the Euro Tour OoM this season.
Making the final of the Players Championship Finals yesterday and securing the £60,000 in prize money sees The Asp jump 6 places in the ranking to 15th.
He’s back inside the top 16 and doesn’t have much prize money to defend next year so if he can maintain this form, he could be back amongst the top next year.
Luke Littler: Unchanged
THE WINNING MOMENT ☢️
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 23, 2025
Luke Littler checks out 88 on double six to win the Players Championship Finals with an 11-8 triumph against Nathan Aspinall!
This 18-year-old is sensational 🌟
📺 https://t.co/SPmnf5bJYj#PCFinals | Final pic.twitter.com/F3n8bhlA2l
He may not have moved in position but Luke Littler is undoubtedly the main winner from the weekend.
The Nuke picked up his sixth PDC major ranking title of the year and the £120,000 in prize money puts him firmly at the top of the rankings at £1,970,500 in earnings.
He registered the highest ever tournament average in Players Championship Finals history at 105.66 and even received some surprise praise from Gerwyn Price following their match.
See more – Luke Littler surprised by Gerwyn Price praise stating “not many times Gezzy does that”
He is now going into the highest paying tournament in darts history for the winner as a clear favourite and should he win, he’ll set another record becoming the first player to earn above £2 million over the two-year OoM rankings.
Order of Merit Changes: Noteworthy
Michael van Gerwen failed to qualify for this tournament for the first time in both his and the tournament’s history!
He was defending runner-up prize money from 2023 and despite no change in his ranking position (3rd), MVG has dropped £60k in ranking money as a result.
Even winning the £1 million in prize money at the 2026 World Championship wouldn’t be enough to overtake Luke Littler at the top now.
Despite making it to the quarter-finals, James Wade drops a single place to 7th in the rankings while Danny Noppert replaces him in 6th. Both have had great seasons and Chris Dobey also making the quarter-final moves him up a place to 8th.
Gian van Veen knocked out the reigning champion Luke Humphries in a first round upset, however, a second round loss to Krzysztof Ratajski and deeper runs from players around him saw the young Dutchman drop 2 places to 10th.
He did beat Beau Greaves in the final of the Winmau World Youth Championship though which will serve as some consolation.
Another early exit for Rob Cross sees the 2018 World Champion drop out of the top 16 as he moves down a place to 17th. It’s been a disastrous campaign for Voltage who started the year 4th in the rankings.
Based on rankings alone, he’s arguably had the worst season of any player and is going into the 2026 World Championship defending prize money from a semi-final finish in 2024.
Another early exit could see him drop even further next month!
Martin Schindler made it to the third round and moved up 2 places to 13th in the OoM.
The German number one has won a Euro Tour and Players Championship title this season but is missing a deep major tournament run that could push him into the top 10.
Further down the rankings, Adam Lipscombe jumped 10 places to 82nd following his run to the third round while James Hurrell who also made the third round jumps 5 places to 63rd.
The updated ranking position for the top 32 in the world can be found below:
| Rank | Player | Prize Money |
| 1 | Luke Littler | £1,970,500 |
| 2 | Luke Humphries | £1,572,000 |
| 3 | Michael van Gerwen | £681,250 |
| 4 | Stephen Bunting | £593,7250 |
| 5 | Jonny Clayton | £560,000 |
| 6 | Danny Noppert | £540,750 |
| 7 | James Wade | £534,250 |
| 8 | Chris Dobey | £530,250 |
| 9 | Gerwyn Price | £521,000 |
| 10 | Gian van Veen | £520,000 |
| 11 | Josh Rock | £510,500 |
| 12 | Ross Smith | £457,750 |
| 13 | Martin Schindler | £448,250 |
| 14 | Gary Anderson | £444,500 |
| 15 | Nathan Aspinall | £440,000 |
| 16 | Damon Heta | £439,000 |
| 17 | Rob Cross | £429,000 |
| 18 | Mike De Decker | £413,500 |
| 19 | Jermaine Wattimena | £403,000 |
| 20 | Ryan Searle | £393,000 |
| 21 | Dave Chisnall | £387,500 |
| 22 | Daryl Gurney | £356,500 |
| 23 | Dimitri Van den Bergh | £335,250 |
| 24 | Ryan Joyce | £335,000 |
| 25 | Luke Woodhouse | £330,500 |
| 26 | Cameron Menzies | £325,250 |
| 27 | Ritchie Edhouse | £316,500 |
| 28 | Michael Smith | £313,500 |
| 29 | Dirk van Duijvenbode | £309,750 |
| 30 | Peter Wright | £301,500 |
| 31 | Wessel Nijman | £295,750 |
| 32 | Joe Cullen | £285,000 |
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