PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf assesses the top ten PDC stars - based on their last 200 legs played - ahead of the upcoming Players Championship Finals in Minehead.
#1 Averages - Luke Littler
#1 OChE - Luke Littler
#1 Doubles - Damon Heta
#1 171-180 - Luke Littler
#1 99, 101+ Checkout - Gary Anderson & Michael van Gerwen
Luke Littler has left his rivals in the dust with his Grand Slam of Darts victory.
'The Nuke' leads all Tour Card Holders with a 102.64 average in his past 200 legs; emphatic 16-3 and 16-2 demolitions of his opponents this past weekend have boosted his OChE rating to a career-best 68.43, and no player in the history of the Form Guide has fired off as many maxima as the teenaged sensation (115).
Now that he no longer has any stigma attached to him for failing to win a TV ranking event, Littler appears to have no limits to what he can achieve in a career which has only just begun.
In a career-defining achievement, Martin Lukeman exceeded all expectations by reaching the final of the Grand Slam - defeating fourth seed Rob Cross twice, winning his group and averaging 99 over 55 legs between his quarter-final and semi-final performances.
The £70,000 prize he earned as runner-up - the largest payday of his career - pushes him to #37 on the Order of Merit, but on form he is a far more dangerous player than that ranking would indicate.
Lukeman is the #18 ranked player in averages and OChE rating, an improvement on his October stats in spite of his 16-3 loss to Littler in Sunday's final.
Even more impressively, Lukeman hit at least 40% of his doubles in every elimination match of the tournament, giving him the 11th highest checkout percentage of any Tour Card Holder over 200 legs.
Even if Littler ensured that 'Smash' would not get anywhere near the Eric Bristow Trophy, Lukeman's campaign puts him forward as a serious competitor in tournaments to come.
Elsewhere, when one of the World Youth Championship finalists has the 12th highest average of any player, young or old, he is a clear favourite to take the title.
Gian van Veen, on a 96.66 average, is just 0.08 points behind his Dutch idol Michael van Gerwen in the Form Guide.
Were it not for Littler's achievements, Van Veen's record-breaking group stage average would have been one of the biggest highlights of the 2024 Grand Slam.
In Sunday’s Winmau World Youth Championship final, Jurjen van der Velde will have to contend with Van Veen’s fifth highest doubles percentage, with the former European Championship semi-finalist hitting 44% of his targets over the last 200 legs.
This year’s Grand Slam, notable for the early exit of its three top seeds Luke Humphries, Michael Smith and Van Gerwen, has put these three World Champions in an unexpectedly weak position in the Form Guide leading into the Players Championship Finals.
Reigning World Champion Humphries has the fifth highest average; Van Gerwen ranks 11th and Smith is back in 25th spot.
All three have shown the ability to win titles in 2024, but Van Gerwen and Smith in particular will have to recapture their old magic to reinsert themselves into the conversation for winning the upcoming World Darts Championship.
*OChE (Ordinal Checkout Efficiency) explained:
OChE is a metric designed to evaluate the efficiency at which players convert their averages into legs won.
The statistic is the % of legs a player would expect to win on the ProTour, calculated from a weighted average of 4,5, 6 & 7 visit checkout rates.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia