2025 Darting Predictions

It’s the sweet spot of the year on the darting calendar between social media being flooded with pictures of everyone with their Luke Littler merchandise and people looking forward to the darting calendar to kick off.

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram et al will all soon be flooded with everyone making their yearly predictions where you look back 365 days from now, shout about the ones you got right and suppressing the ones you got wrong.

There wouldn’t have been a lot of people naming Mike de Decker, Dimitri van den Bergh and Ritchie Edhouse as 2024 major winners but there would have been a bucket load of people predicting Luke Littler and Luke Humphries to have their pictures taken with trophies on Sundays throughout the year.

Major Winners

If I’d have started this blog last year, I would’ve got Stephen Bunting to win a major correct, but alas only I will know in my heart of hearts that this was an actual prediction I made.

Given the current state of darts in terms of the depth in talent, it’s currently a bloggers paradise as you can throw out anywhere between 10-15 names that have never won a major to do so in 2025 and you wouldn’t be greeted with a team of people in a straightjacket.

I’d be flabbergasted if one of the Luke’s dont win the Premier League. It’s one of Humphries’ last majors to win and like the Matchplay last year, you can bet your bottom dollar he is gunning for that this year. Littler is probably the best player at the moment and will look to stoutly defending his 1st Major title.

The PDC Winmau World Masters has been rebranded and the format revamped as it expands to a 32 player field and it’s worth noting that the event now becomes a ranking tournament. This historically is the type of event that throws up a first time PDC Major winner with recent examples being Chris Dobey, Joe Cullen and defending champion Stephen Bunting. With the expanded field, expect a new name on the trophy and yes I am cheating there by being allowed to include Luke Littler in that list.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all want to see Gary Anderson return to the winner’s enclosure in 2025 in terms of Majors. He strikes me as the UK Open Champion this year, something he did back 2018. Few played better in 2024 on the floor and had no major titles to show for it and would be a live outsider for the Masters, now a ranking event of course.

First Time Major winner prediction: Damon Heta

“The Heat” is by no means Luke Humphries, but I feel this year’s Premier League omission may drive Heta to go and win a big one this year as he embarks on his mission to be included in the 2026 Premier League. As I laid out the case for Heta to be included in this year’s iteration of the weekly exhibition event, Heta is up there in all the requisite stats in terms of yearly average, 180s and checkout % and surely it’s just a matter of time before he wins his maiden PDC major in my opinion.

Honourable mention: Ryan Searle but might be 2026 for him (see below)

First Time Players Championship Winner: Gian van Veen

GVV has made 2 Players Championship Finals (1 in 20223 and 2023) and 1 Euro Tour finals, losing to MVG in Hungary last September. He only just got over the line in the World Youth Championship (not sure as to why they don’t alter the structure of this competition because it seems mad someone like GVV was eligible to compete in it) after surviving a bucket load of match darts against van de Velde . That being said, there was a lot of good stuff from GVV towards the business end of last year (obviously World Championships aside) including monstrous averages in the Grand Slam. I think there is still a bit of raw development needed for van Veen on handling the big stage and the big occasions but when he finds a bit of comfort in those situations, he could be deadly and the first step is taking a PC Title.

Honourable Mention: Connor Scutt (see players to shoot up the rankings)

First Time Euro Tour winner: Ryan Searle

“Heavy Metal” made 8 out of 13 final Euro Tour Sunday evening sessions, including his last one being that dramatic defeat by Martin Schindler in the Swiss Darts trophy. Whilst that defeat will probably still sting, the signs are positive that Searle will grab a Euro Tour title in 2025. He has a similar profile to perennial Euro Tour winner in Dave Chisnall with bucket loads of 180s and can pin tops like the best of them. For some players, the Euro Tour can take a bit of getting used to, especially the final session (Sunday evening) where you need to win 3 games to lift the trophy.

As previously mentioned, Searle’s last Euro tour was the final defeat, but the one prior to that was a Semi final which was his best performance of the year compared with the previous 6 Quarter Final exits. I expect Searle to be “better for the run” and if being able to find victory on the Euro Tour, that may springboard him further in 2026 searching for his first Major PDC title. He has the scoring and the devastating accuracy on tops when he’s on it, just a tiny bit more consistency and composure in the right places and Searle could lift more than his 32g bombers.

Honourable mention: Ryan Joyce (see players to shoot up the rankings)

Players to slip down rankings

Couple of obvious choices here but the main qualifier for this is those that are defending a lot of money from 2 years ago (Order of Merit works on a 2 year rolling basis) with an added kicker of players not currently playing that well (see Michael Smith’s World Ranking chart).

Gerwyn Price is defending two Euro Tour Titles and a handful of ProTour titles from 2023 and all in all is defending north of £300k this year, which equates to about two thirds of his money with the biggest chunk coming from the World Grand Prix runner up finish. He’s not found anywhere near his World Championship winning form for a while now and no-one is that bothered about his roars on the stage. If the Iceman is unable to find something in the locker, he could fall out of the Top 16.

Nathan Aspinall, somewhat fortunate to be included in this year’s Premier League and the early World Series events in Bahrain and Den Bosch sees him defending his World Matchplay winnings of £200k. The Asp, who has battled injuries and dartitis in what seems like forever is in real dangers of following Michael Smith out of the Top 16. With Premier League duties amongst other things, everything could swallow him up and would have a lot of work to do to get back into the top 5/10. That being said, due to injuries cuasing him to miss stretches along with pro Pro Tour/Euro Tour form which saw him miss Players Championship Finals in 2023 combined with early exits in a whole host of other big TV events, there are opportunities for him to add money before the Matchplay money gets ripped off his total.

Other players defending decent chunks from 2023 are Brendan Dolan, who always seems to chug along at his pace and pick up decent bits every so often should be fine, and last year’s freefaller in rankings Michael Smith who continues to have decent Major TV appearances to defend. UK Open 5th Round and Grand Prix SF money are the main contributors to his 2023 prize money but fortunately for Smith, he didnt partipcate in a lot of Players Championship events in 2023, foregoing 14 of the 30 events so can chip away at the money coming off there. SImilar comments apply to his Euro Tour exertions as he has 1 Euro Tour Title to defend, but also missed 3 of those events 2 years ago.

Players to shoot up the rankings

Doesn’t take many brain cells to figure out you are looking for the opposite of the above, someone who didnt win a lot of money in 2023 (perhaps in 2nd year of their Tour card) and are playing themselves into a bit of form.

That being said, after the recent changes that were announced to the Euro Tour, it may seem slightly more difficult for those outside the top 16 to consistently make runs unless you are the second coming of Luke Littler.

Before I get into the biggest risers from those lower down in the rankings, I’ve put Damon Heta’s name forward as a 1st time Major winner and the current could see himself in the top 4 if finalling a big TV Major this year.

You’ll struggle to find a repeat of the stratospheric rise up the rankings for 1st year Tour Card holders like Luke Littler in 2024, but #61 ranked Connor Scutt looks primed to at the very least trouble the top 32. Due to his exploits in 2024, he was able to retain his money won on his rankings due to finishing inside the top 64 of the world rankings at the end of the World Championships. His £77k earned courtesy of a Quarter Final run in the Players Championship finals and some other Major TV ranking event appearances has plenty of room for improvement as there are just 2 Euro Tour 1st round exits, only 2 Players Championship events from 2023 that he advanced further than the 4th round. He’s roughly £190k off the top 32 and a deep run or two in a TV event plus bolstered Players Championship and Euro Tour finishes could see the Sniper pick off more than a few in his first year as a Tour Card holder.

The obvious pick here is Wessel Nijman. The exciting young Dutchman currently sits at number 55 in the rankings with £100k in prize money. He has absolutely zero money to defend from 2023 as he was coming off the back of his suspension for match fixing, meaning every penny he earns goes on top of his current earnings. He is in the 2nd year of the Tour card so chances are that you may not see the full force of Nijman’s charge up the rankings into top 16 (maybe even top 10) until the 2026 season gets going because even 2024 sees plenty of opportunity to build on prize money with earlyish round exits in all of the Majors he qualified for. He is probably one of the more in form players despite the results sheet perhaps not showing it, but big averages and a lack of fuss about who he faces on the oche are traits that you need to make it in this business and with more confidence and experience playing on the big stages against the big players should see Nijman continue to grow into a darting force.

If Ryan Joyce can find somewhat of a way to get on board with Euro Tour participation and find himself into a few Sunday final sessions, there is a lot that Joyce can do in 2025 in terms of Wrold rankings. Joyce currently sits at world #29 and he’s openly stated how much he dislikes playing on the Euro Tour, which can be represented by just 4 events played in 2023 (played in 7/13 in 2024 but never made it past the 3rd round). The real kicker for Joyce though is the fact that Joyce did not play in either the Matchplay, Grand Prix or Grand Slam in 2023, he should get a crack at least a few of those which can add chunky amounts of prize money to your locker. Further more he only had a 3rd round exit in the UK open and also had a 2nd round exit at the 2024 World Championships. Joyce in his current vein of form can do a lot of heavy lifting in 2024 and was putting in a lot of good work on the stage towards the back end of last year. Dont be surprised to see Ryan Joyce in the Top 16 come the end of this year.

An honourable mention also goes to Callan Rydz, who looks to be through his rough patch of form and mental state. He was certainly back to his brilliant best at the World Championships and if he can kick on, there isn’t a lot of money to defend for the players ranked #40, with a UK Open 5th round finish the only one of note from 2023