Why has Michael van Gerwen dropped to 13th?
Not because of one bad night, exactly. His 6-3 defeat by Kevin Doets at the Westfalenhalle on the Friday was worth £7,500, the first-round cheque. The damage was done by what left his total in the same moment. The Order of Meritis a rolling two-year prize-money table, so when the 2026 European Championship was played, the 2024 edition dropped off it. Van Gerwen reached the second round in 2024, losing 10-4 to Gary Anderson, and that had been worth £15,000.
Net cost of the week: £7,500 and three places. He sits on £580,000, and the next large sum due to expire from his window is the runner-up money from the 2025 World Championship, when Luke Littler beat him 7-3 at Alexandra Palace. It is still counting. It will not be for long.
The 2024 money mattered more than the 2026 darts
That pattern runs through the whole weekend. The heaviest falls all trace to the same place: what these four did in Dortmund two years ago, not what they did this time.
| Player | 2024 | Off | 2026 | On | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ritchie Edhouse | Champion | −£120,000 | Did not qualify | — | 33rd to 55th |
| Gary Anderson | Quarter-final | −£25,000 | Did not qualify | — | 9th to 14th |
| Danny Noppert | Semi-final | −£40,000 | First round | +£7,500 | 7th to 11th |
| Michael van Gerwen | Second round | −£15,000 | First round | +£7,500 | 10th to 13th |
Ritchie Edhousetook the heaviest hit on the list without throwing a dart: 22 places, from 33rd to 55th. He won the 2024 title in that same hall, beating Jermaine Wattimena 11-3 as a 250-1 outsider, and the £120,000 expired on Sunday with nothing to replace it, because he had not made this year’s 32-player field. Anderson missed the cut too and lost his 2024 quarter-final money. Noppert did play, and still lost £32,500 on the week: a 2024 semi-final run, ended 11-10 by Wattimena, against a 6-5 first-round defeat by Stephen Bunting this time.
One thing softens all of it. Every round in Dortmund now pays more than it did in 2024, because the fund grew from £600,000 to £750,000 across the two years. The rises landed on every line except one — the first round, which is exactly where van Gerwen landed.
| Round | 2024 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | £120,000 | £150,000 |
| Runner-up | £60,000 | £80,000 |
| Semi-finalists | £40,000 | £50,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | £25,000 | £35,000 |
| Second-round losers | £15,000 | £20,000 |
| First-round losers | £7,500 | £7,500 |
| Total fund | £600,000 | £750,000 |
How tight is the top ten?
Tighter than the positions suggest. Five players sit within £35,000 of tenth place, which is exactly what one quarter-final in Dortmund now pays.
Gaps to Nathan Aspinall in tenth on £597,000. Source: DartsRankings, updated 25 October 2026.
Who went the other way
Ross Smith is the weekend’s clearest winner. The £150,000 he collected for beating Martin Schindler 11-8 in the final lifted him eight places to sixth, past James Wade and Josh Rock, and into the highest position of his career.
Stephen Buntingis back in the top ten at ninth, up four, having beaten Noppert and then Kim Huybrechts 10-3 before Gerwyn Price ended his week by the same scoreline in the quarter-finals. Schindler’s £80,000 as runner-up moved him three places to 20th. Huybrechts, who was only in the tournament as Luke Humphries’ late replacement, climbed nine places to 46th off one of the smallest cheques in the building.
Humphries withdrew from Dortmund ill and added nothing, which dropped him behind Gian van Veen and back to third. Van Veen lost 10-6 to Luke Woodhouse in the second round and could not defend the title he had won in Dortmund a year earlier.
The full PDC Order of Merit top 20
| # | Move | Player | Two-year earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Luke Littler | £3,141,000 |
| 2 | +1 | Gian van Veen | £1,058,250 |
| 3 | -1 | Luke Humphries | £1,037,500 |
| 4 | — | Gerwyn Price | £829,500 |
| 5 | — | Jonny Clayton | £726,000 |
| 6 | +8 | Ross Smith | £714,750 |
| 7 | -1 | James Wade | £673,750 |
| 8 | — | Josh Rock | £619,000 |
| 9 | +4 | Stephen Bunting | £603,750 |
| 10 | +1 | Nathan Aspinall | £597,000 |
| 11 | -4 | Danny Noppert | £591,000 |
| 12 | — | Wessel Nijman | £585,000 |
| 13 | -3 | Michael van Gerwen | £580,000 |
| 14 | -5 | Gary Anderson | £566,750 |
| 15 | — | Ryan Searle | £562,750 |
| 16 | +1 | Chris Dobey | £534,750 |
| 17 | +1 | Luke Woodhouse | £509,000 |
| 18 | -2 | Jermaine Wattimena | £503,750 |
| 19 | — | Krzysztof Ratajski | £490,000 |
| 20 | +3 | Martin Schindler | £463,750 |
Littler’s £3,141,000 is still the strangest figure on the page. He lost in the quarter-finals in Dortmund and his lead over second place is £2,082,750 — larger than the whole two-year total of any other player on the list.
What happens next
Players Championship 31 and 32 run at the Maaspoort in Den Bosch on 28 and 29 October, the penultimate pair in a 34-event series, and that prize money counts on the main Order of Merit as well as the ProTour table. After them come the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton from 14 November and the Players Championship Finals at Minehead the week after.
December is where the position starts to bite. The top 32 at the cut-off are seeded at Alexandra Palace, so 13th is safe enough on that measure — but the window keeps draining money van Gerwen earned in a better season, and the men immediately around him are separated by one decent weekend. Both the live PDC Order of Merit and the World Championship Race move again on Wednesday.