Luke Humphries demands PDC ranking shake-up as he admits defeat trying to catch ‘miles ahead’ rival Luke Littler

Luke Humphries has called for reform to the PDC’s selection and ranking structure, as he acknowledged the uncomfortable reality that catching Luke Littler on the Order of Merit has become a near-impossible task — with the world number one sitting on a historic, record-breaking financial lead that no rival can realistically bridge.

The defending Premier League champion, who lost the world number one ranking to the teenage sensation last November, has spoken candidly about both the flaws in the current ranking system and his own sense that Littler now occupies a tier above everyone else in the sport. It is a moment of rare and striking honesty from one of darts’ most decorated active players — and a reflection of how completely Littler has redrawn the sport’s competitive landscape in an extraordinarily short space of time.

A Gap That Defies Belief

The numbers behind Humphries’ admission are staggering. Littler has a commanding lead over number two Luke Humphries, who sits on £1,172,000 — some way less than even half of Littler’s tally on the PDC Order of Merit.

In his victory at the 2026 World Championship, Littler became the first player to win the new, increased £1 million fee for the tournament winner — a prize that single-handedly extended his ranking lead to a margin that has become essentially insurmountable for the season. The structure of the PDC’s money-based ranking system means that prize money earned from major events over a two-year rolling cycle determines a player’s world ranking — and Littler’s haul across that cycle is simply in a different universe to everyone else’s.

Unlike tennis or golf which use points, the PDC uses British Pounds as ranking currency. Prize money earned today stays on a player’s ranking for exactly two years, at which point it is removed. The implication of this for Humphries is stark: even if he were to win every ranking event for the rest of 2026, he would struggle to close a gap of this magnitude within the two-year window.

Humphries has spoken with striking candour about the futility of chasing Littler in the rankings. Reflecting on his World Masters loss to Littler earlier in 2026, Humphries told a news conference that while he remains his closest rival, he thinks Littler is “definitely a league above everyone.”

Humphries Calls for a Premier League Shake-Up

Beyond the ranking gap, Humphries has also turned his attention to the question of how the PDC selects its Premier League participants — and raised the possibility that the current eight-player format may no longer be fit for purpose in an era where the talent pool has deepened so dramatically.

“There are a lot of good players playing well — Josh (Rock), Gian (van Veen), Gary (Anderson) are playing well,” Humphries said. “There are a lot of good players and I think there is going to be a headache for the Premier League this year. It is going to be a tough ask to pick that. It is hard to know what the perfect scenario is for the Premier League.”

Crucially, Humphries went further and suggested an expansion could be the answer. “Eight always feels really elite. I have missed out — it is good to upset people, it gives you a little bit of hunger and you don’t want to please everyone. What makes good viewing is good arguments of ‘I should be in, I shouldn’t be in’ — all that type of stuff. I think 12 is probably too many, it wouldn’t feel elite then, 10 is the maximum. It all depends — if it is eight it is a headache, if it is 10 then it picks itself.”

It is a nuanced position, characteristic of a player who understands the sport’s commercial realities as well as its competitive ones. Humphries is not calling for a wholesale revolution — he appreciates the exclusivity that makes the Premier League the jewel in the PDC’s weekly calendar. But he is acknowledging what is obvious to any close observer: with players like Nathan Aspinall, Gary Anderson, Danny Noppert and James Wade all outside the field despite their world-class pedigree, the eight-player limit is creating visible injustices.

The Ranking System Debate Rumbles On

Humphries is not alone in raising questions about the PDC’s money-based ranking system. Three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen had previously argued that the sport can no longer rely on a money-based ranking system, calling for an alternative based on points rather than prize money.

Van Gerwen’s concern centred specifically on the distorting effect of the world championship’s prize fund — now at unprecedented levels. The world champion was approaching £2 million over the current cycle, with Van Gerwen following more than a million behind. Littler sees no reason to change the system, responding: “If Michael wanted it to change, then is he confident about picking this up? Is he scared of me or Luke Humphries going £1 million, £2 million ahead of him in the rankings?”

For Humphries, the debate is more nuanced than Littler’s blunt response suggests. The world number two is not arguing that the system is unfair — he simply recognises, with characteristic honesty, that it produces outcomes which strain credibility. A player can be the second-best in the world in terms of recent form and results, yet be sitting on less than half the ranking figure of the player above them. The gap between first and second has never, in the sport’s history, been this wide.

The PDC’s Position: No Change for Now

The PDC has so far resisted calls for structural reform, with chief executive Matt Porter making clear that the current format would continue into 2026. “We always say that we do evaluate it and we will change it at some point, but we just feel at the moment the data shows us that this is the right format,” Porter told Sky Sports. “The crowds in the arenas love it, they love seeing a winner on the night, it keeps them entertained until the last dart, and the TV audience figures are great. So, we will make a decision as and when we feel that the format is tired.”

It is the language of an organisation that is content with commercial success — and rightly so, given that the Premier League continues to fill arenas across the UK and Europe week after week. But commercial success and competitive fairness are not always the same thing, and Humphries’ comments suggest that even the players who benefit most from the current system are beginning to question whether it needs to evolve.

Humphries: Still Hungry, Still Dangerous

What makes Humphries’ situation so compelling is that, for all his candour about Littler’s dominance, he remains one of the most formidable players on the planet. Since getting the better of Littler in last year’s Premier League showdown, Humphries has come up short in his next four finals — losing three to Littler and one to Gian van Veen. But Humphries is too good a player to let that run go on too long, and the Premier League is arguably his best event — the last time he failed to make the final was in 2023.

Humphries has been one of the most dominant players on tour over the past couple of years, amassing eight major singles titles, and lifted his maiden world championship title in January 2024 after defeating a 16-year-old Littler. The idea that he is simply a passenger while Littler reigns supreme is entirely wide of the mark — he remains the defending Premier League champion, the man who still pushes Littler harder than anyone else, and the player who on his day is capable of beating the world’s best.

But the ranking reality is inescapable. Humphries lost his No. 1 ranking to Littler after ‘The Nuke’ made it all the way to the final of the Grand Slam in November 2025 and has since fallen even further behind. Barring a truly extraordinary sequence of results — combined with Littler failing to defend his money across the same period — the world number one ranking will belong to the Warrington teenager for the foreseeable future.

For Humphries, the path forward is not through the rankings table. It is through the dartboard — tournament by tournament, final by final, proving that even if the numbers say Littler is in a class of his own, the oche tells a rather more contested story.