This weekend saw the final tournament of the PDC 2024 darts season take place with the Players Championship Finals.
We’ve selected a number of players from the 64 competitors to highlight those that performed exceptionally well and also those that performed exceptionally poorly 😬
This was the last tournament before the 2025 World Darts Championship gets underway next month and some players won’t be going into it with much confidence…
Grading: 1 – 10 (1 being a failure, 5 being average, 10 being exceptional)
With so many players, it would be too much to single out any player with average performances so for this article we’ve just looked at those who performed noticeably bad (ratings of 1 & 2) and those who performed very well (ratings 8-10)
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Player Ratings for the 2024 Players Championship Finals
Michael van Gerwen – 1/10
It’s been an abysmal campaign for Michael van Gerwen.
This is the second consecutive season where MVG has failed to win a PDC major ranking title but unlike 2023 where he Won the Premier League and World Series of Darts Finals, he’s also failed to win a non-ranking major.
He’s made the final of the World Matchplay and The Masters so it’s not like he’s lost the ability to make deep tournament runs but for a player of MVG’s calibre, he needs to put 2024 behind him quickly.
This was just compounded at the Players Championship Finals. He was a runner-up in 2023 but crashed out in the first round after a 6-1 loss to Ian White.
It was the worst result possible for the Dutchman going into the World Championships. He’s got an elite mentality but it’s hard to see this not impacting his confidence…
Rob Cross – 1/10
Similar to MVG, Rob Cross was a shock first round exit as well.
Both Cross and MVG are ranked inside the top 5 on the PDC Order of Merit which is why a first round exit is a straight failure for Voltage.
We feel for Cross though as he was drawn against Luke Littler in the first round.
Fresh from a win at the Grand Slam of Darts for Littler, this was an awful draw for Cross but it was made worse by a 6-0 whitewash.
Cross was a finalist in this tournament in 2022 so MVG and Cross were former runners-up in the last two years, are both ranked in the top 5 in the world right now and both ended up with first round exits 😶🌫️
Peter Wright – 2/10
Peter Wright is now out of the top 16 in the Order of Merit and a first round, 6-1 defeat by Daryl Gurney is adding insult to injury.
Wright has been able to win a major title for the last several seasons but this year has been a list of early round exits. He made it to the quarter-finals of The Masters but for the ranked majors, he’s not had a single deep run and finished bottom of the Premier League.
It’s been a hard watch for fans to see him struggling and a 6-1 loss at the weekend is further evidence of a downfall rather than a momentary blip.
We keep wanting to see him bounce back to his best but an 88.66 average and only 1 attempt at a checkout (which he did hit) is not the type of statline you’d expect from a two-time world champion.
Gerwyn Price – 2/10
Much like MVG and Wright, Gerwyn Price has had a season to forget.
He’s almost identical to Wright in terms of no type of tournament run in a major, he had a bad Premier League and just when he needed a good tournament to get some form going into the World Championships, he suffered a first round loss to Thibault Tricole.
Tricole – no disrespect – is ranked 79th and the Frenchman is a relative unknown in the professional game.
Price is a World Champion, top 10 ranked player (despite his poor form) and should have really walked this game.
He’s recently cleared up retirement talk but it’s hard to see him challenging for tournaments anytime soon. This loss will have hurt going into the World Championships as well.
Mike De Decker – 8/10
The 2024 World Grand Prix winner, Mike De Decker continues to put the dart world on notice with another solid tournament.
De Decker progressed to the quarter-finals dropping just 5 legs in 3 games as he won 6-1, 6-0 and 10-4. The 6-0 whitewash came against Ian White who knocked out MVG in the first round.
Unfortunately, De Decker would come up against Luke Littler who had a sensational comeback at the Grand Slam the week prior to beat De Decker 10-9 in a very close match.
It wouldn’t be a repeat this time though as Littler thrashed De Decker 10-3 in the quarter finals.
Overall though it was a very solid tournament for De Decker who will be looking to push for a Premier League position next year and a QF finish would have only helped his cause, especially when many of the big names suffered early exits.
Ross Smith – 8.5/10
It’s been an up and down season for Ross Smith.
The 2022 European Championship winner made it to the top 10 for a period during this season on the Order of Merit and also made it to the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay earlier this year.
He then suffered some surprise early tournament exits at the Grand Prix, Grand Slam and European Championships though (hence the up and down) so a semi-final run at the Players Championship Finals will fill him with confidence going into the World Championships.
His first match against Dimitri Van den Bergh set the pace as he crashed in 5 x 180’s in a 6-1 win alongside a 104.7 average.
He then followed that win up with several more hammerings!
6-1 against Wesley Plaisier, 10-1 against Andrew Gilding and 10-3 against Scott Williams (with a 105 average) saw smudger on an absolute rampage.
No one could get close to him but he was eventually stopped in the semi-finals as Luke Littler, a player in supreme form, beat him 11-9 in a closely contested match.
Very good tournament overall.
Dirk van Duijvenbode – 9/10
Dirk van Duijvenbode is considered to be a solid, top 32 player but not necessarily someone you think of as a deep tournament player.
A semi-final run capped a very good tournament for the Dutchman who had his highest tournament placing in the last few seasons.
He did have a more favourable run when it came to the draw as he avoided any top 32 player until he eventually met the world number 1 in the semi-finals.
The 11-8 loss to Luke Humphries was a well contested match and Dirk will be happy with the tournament overall.
He is maybe deserving of an 8 or 8.5 to be realistic (similar to Smith) but we’ve actually bumped it up because of the vibes he brought to the matches.
The techno walk on had him looking like he was at a rave rather than a darts match and fans loved to see it!
Just check out the scenes 👇
Yer Da at a rave…😅 pic.twitter.com/JJDTUv5H9V
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 24, 2024
Connor Scutt – 9/10
Connor Scutt lost in the quarter-finals to Dirk but his tournament run was arguably more impressive.
This was his first decent run in a PDC major tournament and it was just last month that Scutt secured his two-year Tour Card courtesy of the Challenger Tour.
This was some way to announce himself as he beat last weekend’s Grand Slam runner-up Martin Lukeman and Daryl Gurney on his way to the quarters.
He only narrowly lost 10-9 to Dirk van Duijvenbode as well and with comfortable 90+ averages in all his matches, he really set a solid platform to build on at this tournament.
Definitely one to keep an eye on going forward.
Luke Littler – 10/10
He was so close to back to back major titles in back to back weekends!
Luke Littler came into this tournament fresh from winning the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts last Sunday evening.
His first PDC major ranking title had people talking non-stop about how he will now be coming for Phil Taylor’s records.
Related – Phil Taylor responds to ‘claims’ Luke Littler will break his darts records
With 10 titles in 2024, he was looking to add to this collection and his performance throughout was simply top tier once again.
Some players avoided top 32 players, Littlers route was nothing but top 32 players which makes it even more impressive. This was his run:
- 6-0 against Rob Cross
- 6-2 against Ritchie Edhouse
- 10-3 against Danny Noppert
- 10-3 against Mike De Decker
- 11-9 against Ross Smith
- 7-11 against Luke Humphries
Yes, that last line summed it up. The only player who could stop him was world number 1 and world champion Luke Humphries.
5 of his 6 matches had Littler average 100+ which also included just shy of a 113 average against Cross.
He didn’t win it but it was a faultless tournament and still worthy of a 10/10. To only be stopped in the final by the best player in the world, you can’t really take anything away from the 17 year old for that!
Luke Humphries – 10/10
Luke Humphries retained his Players Championship Finals title and gave himself the perfect platform for his World Championship defence next month.
An exit in the group stage of the Grand Slam was the shock of the tournament but Cool Hand bounced back in perfect fashion.
He didn’t have the stand out highlights or averages that Luke Littler put up but it didn’t matter, Humphries lifted the title at the end of the weekend and you can’t do much more than that.
The rebound from an early exit and perfectly timed title defence are what we think contributed to a perfect tournament for Humphries.
As long as he keeps taking out Littler in head-to-heads, it’s hard to question his position as the best darts player on the planet at the moment.
Following the win Humphries would say:
“Luke has made me a bit hungrier to try a bit harder, practice more, because if no-one sticks with him he’s going to win everything.
“Maybe I’m that guy that can stick with him and have a good run over the next five to ten years.
“I do believe we’re the two best players in the world and I’m going to have to keep working hard to keep up with him.”
10/10 performance and surely favourite to defend his World Championship title now.
Check out the tournament highlights below for the final session:
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