Darts News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Taylor Lanning/PDC

Live PDC Order of Merit Update: Nathan Aspinall set to plummet after early exit as Wade, Price and Rock rise

Originally posted on Dartsnews.com | Last updated Jul 24, 2025 7:56 AM ET

After two rounds at the 2025 World Matchplay, it is already clear that the PDC Order of Merit is going to be shaken up quite a bit. Nathan Aspinall will be the biggest loser of the bunch, while quite a few players will move up some spots.

Aspinall had won the World Matchplay two years ago and that ensured that 'The Asp' had to defend £200,000 in prize money at this edition. However, the Englishman flew out in the first round in Blackpool, forcing £190,000 in ranking prize money.

At the start of the tournament, Aspinall was still the world number seven, but he has now dropped to 23rd place. The damage could get worse if Andrew Gilding makes it to the semifinals.

Gilding is one of the winners anyway, as 'Goldfinger' has already moved up three spots after reaching his second consecutive World Matchplay quarterfinal. In the top-10 of the world rankings, especially James Wade, Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross are doing well. They are currently on a plus of three spots. Wade is now the virtual World Number Five in the world, followed by Price and Cross in places six and eight. The top four in the world rankings are still unchanged. Luke Littler can significantly reduce his gap with number one Luke Humphries with a title in Blackpool, though.

Littler not top yet as likely Ally Pally scenario plays out

Littler has all of the cards heading into the latter stages of the year albeit 'The Nuke' has to be patient when it comes to wanting to become World No.1. While he is seen as the current king pin of the sport by many, he still isn't top dog by virtue of the two year system.

Humphries has to defend multiple titles though in the back end of the year off his rankings including the World Darts Championship from two years ago so the likelihood is that unless 'Cool Hand Luke' manages to defend said title, he will likely fall into the traps of The Nuke.

Him also losing in the opening round of the World Matchplay which he had to defend won't be an issue when it comes to this year but he potentially faces a Nathan Aspinall type scenario next year albeit without the serious injury that nearly ended Aspinall's career.

Humphries early exit has not stunted him yet but likely will.

Chris Dobey drops one place anyway after his defeat to Price in the second round, while Clayton has virtually dropped four spots. Clayton is now ninth, but is still in the tournament and so can still make up his lost spots.

Josh Rock is getting closer and closer to the top-10. 'Rocky,' who was responsible for Michael van Gerwen's elimination, has already risen to thirteenth place. Gian van Veen is also on the move. He is up four spots to World No.18 and if he beats James Wade on Thursday night, Van Veen will even rise to the seventeenth spot already. The Dutchman will have to win the World Matchplay to move into the top-10. Wessel Nijman also did good business by making it to the second round at the World Matchplay. Nijman moved up two spots and is now 40th.

Van Gerwen unlikely to be moved as Clayton likely to ascend despite ranking drop

Michael van Gerwen despite having a poor 12 months also doesn't move from his World No.3 spot and is unlikely to for a modicum of time. Of course he reached the World Matchplay and World Championship final last year which props up his ranking but even in the post World Championship Order of Merit, he is still World Number Three.

Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton are set to be World Number Four and World Number Five by current math which features the minimum they could win. This is despite Clayton moving down four spots despite still being in the tournament. Rob Cross in particular is currently slated to be World No.12 after Ally Pally while Chris Dobey will be marginally behind 'The Ferret'.

Would Anderson take a Premier League spot?

There is also the Gary Anderson of it all who currently sits World No.11. He rose alongside Dave Chisnall. But Anderson unlike Chisnall is likely to rise again, he is slated to be World No.7 and there could be a scenario realistically where he rises up towards the top five in the coming months with one good run. A player who often has said he would decline a Premier League invite if they included him but if he has a Grand Slam type run again, he could be in automatically. So there is a dilemma there.

There will also be a semi changing of the guard in the top ten with Ross Smith, Josh Rock as mentioned and Damon Heta all ascending. Aspinall, Michael Smith and Peter Wright who were all previous cogs of the darting elite may yet miss the boat and find themselves out of contention entirely. So the World Matchplay certainly provides the tonic for future events.

Already it is playing out as Peter Wright is nearly out of the top 16. Martin Schindler is behind while Gian van Veen could take him out already with a run to the final. Ryan Joyce too further down in World No.24 up two spots may have lost early in Blackpool but also with his consistency holds all the cards to pick off any top names who fall even further and with events coming off from two years ago, others could be in trouble.

Previous qualifiers plummet

This Order of Merit has knock-ons too for those who played in the tournament previously and either qualified or didn't at all. Joe Cullen for instance has plummeted five spots after his early exit. Ricardo Pietreczko (28th), Cameron Menzies (33rd), Raymond van Barneveld (35th) have all risen one spot just by playing.

But this has been at the detriement of the likes of Krzysztof Ratajski, Brendan Dolan as well as Callan Rydz. Kevin Doets who in reality was a player who was screwed by the new top 16 European Tour rule and could've made it to Blackpool if not alongside Niels Zonneveld and William O'Connor also has fallen.

Kim Huybrechts and Jose de Sousa also continue to plummet down to World No.50 and World No.55 so while the moves at the top are apparent it is just as big for those further down the Order of Merit.

Live PDC Order of Merit as of 24/7/25

Rk	+/-	Name	Prize Money	R1	R2	QF	SF	F	W
1		Luke Humphries	1,797,750	1797.75
2		Luke Littler	1,330,500	1310.5	1315.5	1330.5	1350.5	1400.5	1500.5
3		Michael van Gerwen	739,750	734.75	739.75
4		Stephen Bunting	620,500	600.5	605.5	620.5	640.5	690.5	790.5
5	+3	James Wade	541,750	521.75	526.75	541.75	561.75	611.75	711.75
6	+3	Gerwyn Price	533,000	513	518	533	553	603	703
7	-1	Chris Dobey	520,500	515.5	520.5
8	+3	Rob Cross	505,500	505.5
9	-4	Jonny Clayton	493,750	473.75	478.75	493.75	513.75	563.75	663.75
10		Damon Heta	486,250	486.25
11	+1	Gary Anderson	475,750	470.75	475.75
12	+1	Dave Chisnall	468,250	468.25
13	+4	Josh Rock	461,750	441.75	446.75	461.75	481.75	531.75	631.75
14		Ross Smith	456,750	456.75
15	+1	Danny Noppert	446,500	441.5	446.5
16	-1	Peter Wright	442,000	442
17	+1	Martin Schindler	416,500	416.5
18	+4	Gian van Veen	410,000	390	395	410	430	480	580
19	+1	Mike De Decker	397,000	392	397
20	-1	Ryan Searle	388,000	388
21		Michael Smith	368,500
22	+1	Dimitri Van den Bergh	362,250
23	-16	Nathan Aspinall	333,250	333.25
24	+2	Ryan Joyce	326,250	326.25
25	+3	Andrew Gilding	325,750	305.75	310.75	325.75	345.75	395.75	495.75
26	-1	Daryl Gurney	319,750	319.75
27		Ritchie Edhouse	315,250
28	+1	Ricardo Pietreczko	314,500	314.5
29	-5	Joe Cullen	312,500	312.5
30		Jermaine Wattimena	308,250	303.25	308.25
31		Luke Woodhouse	296,250	296.25
32		Dirk van Duijvenbode	278,500	273.5	278.5
33	+1	Cameron Menzies	271,750	271.75
34	-1	Krzysztof Ratajski	267,250
35	+1	Raymond van Barneveld	255,250	255.25
36	-1	Brendan Dolan	246,000
37		Scott Williams	243,750
38		Martin Lukeman	224,750
39		Gabriel Clemens	194,250
40	+2	Wessel Nijman	190,500	185.5	190.5
41	-1	Kevin Doets	180,750
41	-1	Callan Rydz	180,750
43		Mickey Mansell	159,000
44		Ricky Evans	153,750
45		Madars Razma	150,750
46		Niels Zonneveld	145,750
47		William O'Connor	141,000
48	+1	Richard Veenstra	120,500
49	+1	Ian White	118,750
50	-2	Kim Huybrechts	116,250
51		Florian Hempel	108,750
52	+1	Matt Campbell	102,500
53	+1	Keane Barry	101,500
54	+1	Alan Soutar	98,500
55	-3	Jose de Sousa	98,250
56		Connor Scutt	97,250
57		Jim Williams	95,500
58		Rob Owen	94,000
59		Jeffrey de Graaf	93,500
60		Nick Kenny	90,500
61		Ryan Meikle	86,500
61		Stephen Burton	86,500
63		Mensur Suljovic	84,750
64		Thibault Tricole	78,750
65		Dylan Slevin	77,250
66		Dom Taylor	68,000
67		James Hurrell	67,500
68		Mario Vandenbogaerde	58,250
69		Chris Landman	52,750
70		Niko Springer	43,750
71		Andy Baetens	42,000
72		Matthew Dennant	39,250
73		Bradley Brooks	37,750
73		Berry van Peer	37,750
75		Darren Beveridge	36,250
76		Steve Lennon	36,000
77		Nathan Rafferty	35,750
78		Lukas Wenig	35,500
79		Patrick Geeraets	35,250
80		Rhys Griffin	35,000
81		Karel Sedlacek	34,000
82		Owen Bates	33,500
83		Jitse Van der Wal	32,500
83		Adam Hunt	32,500
85		Radek Szaganski	31,500
86		Jelle Klaasen	29,250
87		Martijn Dragt	29,000
88		Danny Lauby	28,750
89		Haupai Puha	26,500
90		Benjamin Reus	26,000
91		Robert Grundy	25,750
91		Adam Lipscombe	25,750
93		William Borland	25,500
94		George Killington	25,000
95		Cam Crabtree	23,750
96		Dominik Gruellich	23,250
97		Darius Labanauskas	22,250
98		Sebastian Bialecki	21,250
99		Justin Hood	21,000
99		Brett Claydon	21,000
101		Max Hopp	20,750
102		Darryl Pilgrim	16,250
103		Andy Boulton	15,500
104		Wesley Plaisier	15,250
104		Maik Kuivenhoven	15,250
104		Joshua Richardson	15,250
104		Thomas Lovely	15,250
108		Michele Turetta	15,000
109		Marvin van Velzen	12,750
109		Jim Long	12,750
111		Leon Weber	12,000
112		Tom Bissell	11,500
112		Carl Sneyd	11,500
114		Christian Kist	11,000
115		Adam Warner	10,500
116		Stefan Bellmont	9,500
117		Boris Krcmar	9,000
118		Greg Ritchie	8,500
118		Tim Wolters	8,500
120		Andreas Harrysson	8,250
121		Ted Evetts	8,000
122		Maximilian Czerwinski	7,500
122		Stefaan Henderyck	7,500
122		Rusty-Jake Rodriguez	7,500
122		Jimmy van Schie	7,500
122		Tavis Dudeney	7,500
127		Oskar Lukasiak	7,250
128		Kevin Burness	7,000
129		Tommy Lishman	6,500
130		Tytus Kanik	6,250
131		Jamai van den Herik	6,000
131		Viktor Tingstrom	6,000
133		Graham Hall	5,500
133		Beau Greaves	5,500
135		Adam Paxton	5,250
136		Mervyn King	5,000
136		Daniel Klose	5,000
136		Jurjen van der Velde	5,000
139		Alexander Merkx	4,500
139		Danny van Trijp	4,500
139		Tom Sykes	4,500
139		Cor Dekker	4,500
143		Pero Ljubic	4,250
144		Jeffrey Sparidaans	4,000
144		Jarno Bottenberg	4,000
144		Kai Gotthardt	4,000
144		Jules van Dongen	4,000
148		Johan Engstrom	3,750
148		Michael Unterbuchner	3,750
148		Aden Kirk	3,750
151		Nathan Girvan	3,250
152		Kevin Knopf	2,500
152		Petr Krivka	2,500
152		Teemu Harju	2,500
152		Paul Krohne	2,500
152		Graham Usher	2,500
157		Scott Campbell	2,000
158		Henry Coates	1,750
159		Jack Tweddell	1,500
160		Kevin Troppmann	1,250
160		Liam Maendl-Lawrance	1,250
160		Martin Kramer	1,250
160		Miroslaw Grudziecki	1,250
160		Yorick Hofkens	1,250
160		Dragutin Horvat	1,250
160		Joshua Hermann	1,250
160		Moritz Bohrmann	1,250
160		Jeffrey De Zwaan	1,250
160		Jerry Hendriks	1,250
160		Benjamin Pratnemer	1,250
160		Marcel Erba	1,250
160		Christian Goedl	1,250
160		Gyorgy Jehirszki	1,250
160		Rowby-John Rodriguez	1,250
160		Zoran Lerchbacher	1,250
160		Andras Borbely	1,250
160		Finn Behrens	1,250
160		Michael Rosenauer	1,250
160		Rene Eidams	1,250
160		Patrick Klingelhoefer	1,250
160		Paul Goyer	1,250
160		Laurin Welk	1,250
160		Marko Kantele	1,250
160		Cedric Waegemans	1,250
160		Francois Schweyen	1,250
160		Patrick De Backer	1,250
160		Sybren Gijbels	1,250
188		Sam Spivey	1,000
188		Paul Rowley	1,000
188		Shaun Fox	1,000
188		Simon Stevenson	1,000
188		Tommy Morris	1,000
188		Michael Flynn	1,000
194		Ryan Branley	750