Stephen Bunting is one of darts most veteran players having competed in the BDO from 2002 and the PDC since 2014. Aged 40, The Bullet is arguably in the prime of his career but isn’t feeling the pressure to stay near the top of the darts rankings due to his ‘popularity’.
Bunting won the 2014 BDO World Championship and made the transition to the PDC rather seamlessly.
He made it to the semi-final of the 2014 World Grand Prix and 2015 UK Open whilst also making the quarter-final of his debut PDC World Championship in 2015.
As the years went on though, titles were few and far between and he started to look like one of the better players that would never win a PDC major title.
This wasn’t to be the case though and after winning his first PDC major title in 2024 (The Masters), Stephen Bunting kicked on to become one of the top players in professional darts.
A new walk-on song that turned out to be incredibly popular and even went viral on social media, work with a hypnotherapist to improve the psychological aspect of his game, and great results on the ProTour has seen Bunting rise to 4th in the PDC Order of Merit rankings.
The competitiveness at the top of the rankings means that The Bullet doesn’t have much breathing room though…
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Darts Has Several Players Who Could Move To 4th In The Rankings
Stephen Bunting is currently 4th with a two-year earning amount of £593,750.
Most players want to reach the top 4 because it gives automatic qualification to the Premier League and often also comes with other invitational event call-ups in the World Series of Darts.
With the two Luke’s winning many of the major titles the last few years, the top 10 is now incredibly close in terms of two-year earnings.
Josh Rock is 11th and sits on £510,000. That means there’s only around £80,000 separating 4th and 11th. A major title win or even a runner-up finish could therefore see any of these players move ahead of Bunting.
Excluding Rock, the top 10 are all major titles winners and include:
- Jonny Clayton
- Danny Noppert
- James Wade
- Chris Dobey
- Gerwyn Price
- Gian van Veen
Fortunately for Bunting, he doesn’t have any big tournament earnings to defend this coming year.
His performances on the Tour which include two Players Championship titles and two European Championship titles mean that he consistently builds a steady earning base without relying on one big major tournament win.
This is something that many top players have suffered with this year and tumbled down the rankings as a result.
See more – 6 darts players who’ve struggled in 2025
Even if he were to drop down the rankings though, Bunting has revealed that this isn’t something that’s actually any concern to him…
Stephen Bunting Doesn’t Feel Pressure to Stay In The Top 4 In Rankings
A good run at the 2026 World Championship could see Bunting move into 3rd or even 2nd in the rankings depending on how far he gets combined with an early exit for Luke Humphries or Michael van Gerwen.
While he claims to be chasing down MVG in 3rd, Bunting revealed that he’s not actually concerned with his ranking at the moment.
Related – Michael van Gerwen believes PDC darts ranking system needs to change
When asked by Online Darts about players chasing him down and if there was pressure to stay in that top 4, Bunting responded:
“No, not really. I think even if I come out of that [top 4] I still think I’m pretty confident that I’ll be in most of the tournaments anyway.
“Obviously I’m one of the most popular dart players on the planet. I believe in my ability. It’d be great to maintain number four but also pushing forward to go higher than that.
“It’s an ambition of mine to become world number one, whether that’s next year or the year after.
“I’ve got to knuckle down, I’ve got to work hard, I’m not a young kid anymore, I’m 40 now so I’ve got to work harder than ever to make that happen.”
Despite a good year, Bunting did struggle in the Premier League after receiving one of those invitational spots earlier this year.
It was his first inclusion in the full line-up since 2014, however, Bunting could never really get going in the competition and finished in last place.
This had many fans questioning his inclusion and with so many players in contention for the 2026 Premier League, it’s becoming more important for players to secure their position by ranking in the top 4.
If he doesn’t maintain that position, it will be interesting to see what the PDC decides next season as they’d be weighing up his ‘popularity’ with his performance in the 2025 edition…
You can see his full interview with Online Darts below:
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