Christopher Kempf, the statistical analyst of the PDC, takes a look at the top 30 players ranked by their averages so far in 2020.
If the first two months of play in the 2020 PDC season are any guide, then the statistical gap between Michael van Gerwen and the rest of the field is ever-narrowing.
From the inception of the PDC until the mid-2010s, one would have expected Phil Taylor to have led consistently in a list of combined averages by a considerable margin; the same is true of Van Gerwen over the past five years.
But now there are three players surpassing 100 points per three-dart visit over the span of the first 500+ legs of the year.
Ian White tops the list narrowly ahead of MvG as the highest-averaging player in the PDC in 2020.
White's presence on lists of high averages always brings into focus the stark contrast between the efficiency with which his opponents (especially Van Gerwen and Peter Wright) have converted their comparably high averages into televised titles.
Even considering just the last two months of PDC play, White pocketed a mere £33,500 in reward for his unrivalled 100.23 average, while MvG's second-best 100.21 average netted him £128,000.
Devon Petersen has rocketed up the rankings to fifth place on the list of high averages, and is second highest in the rate of three-treble visits; a remarkable turnaround for a man who narrowly avoided losing his Tour Card 15 months ago.
On February 22 Petersen defeated Niels Zonneveld with his first recorded 110+ average in PDC tournament play; a ruthless string of victories (including a whitewash of Stephen Bunting and a deciding-leg triumph against Rob Cross) saw him through to his first Pro Tour semi-final.
His 98.46 average thus far puts him ahead of Nathan Aspinall, Krzysztof Ratajski and Gary Anderson, despite those three winning Players Championship titles.
2019 Tour Card winners Glen Durrant (96.65, 9th) and José de Sousa (95.63, 13th) also have provided a difficult test for the established top ten, out-averaging the likes of Dave Chisnall, James Wade and Adrian Lewis.
Wade's 19th highest average of the PDC field, though respectable at 95.13, belies his extraordinary completion percentage of 18.02% on three-figure checkouts.
De Sousa, Danny Noppert and 2020 PDC debutant Leung Kai Fan all rank the top five in their ton-plus checkout abilities, though they remain at least 2.8 points behind master finisher Wade.
With MvG a full five points behind Wade, and World Champion Wright nearly six points behind, Wade is one of the few players who can draw upon such a skill to compensate for a less prodigious scoring ability.
Another player who surpasses the two World Championship finalists is Maikel Verberk, a 21-year-old Dutchman who has completed 21 of 158 (13.3%) of his high finishes on the Development and Challenge tours, giving him the sixth highest rate of any PDC player having played more than 100 legs.
19-year-old Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, with his 19 101+ finishes, is also well ahead of many top PDC players - even if it does not translate into tournament wins just yet, it is impressive to see young players completing difficult checkouts at a rate exceeding that of top professionals, and augurs well for their future.