PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf assesses the top ten PDC stars - based on their last 200 legs played - following last weekend's Winmau World Masters.
#1 Averages - Luke Littler
#1 OChE - Luke Littler
#1 Doubles - Ricardo Pietreczko
#1 171-180 - Luke Littler
#1 99, 101+ Checkout - Ricardo Pietreczko
Luke Humphries' victory in the Winmau World Masters may have allowed him to attain the highest total of Order of Merit ranking income in the history of the PDC, but the #1 spot in the Form Guide currently eludes him.
Even Luke Littler's loss to Jonny Clayton, in which the teenager averaged 108.50 but lost to the player 32 years his senior, pushed his average up to near record levels - Littler has averaged 103.30 over his last 200 legs, more than 4 points better than the next closest player.
Yet while Humphries may only have the PDC's fifth highest average and barely more than half as many maxima as Littler, his OChE indicates that in efficiency and effectiveness at winning legs, only Littler stands in his way.
With the 2025 ProTour approaching, Humphries' recent performances are of a calibre to win him 62% of legs against his opponents on the floor, 2% more than Gary Anderson, even though the latter has the higher average.
Five of the top 20 players in the Form Guide are Dutch, and while Michael van Gerwen leads the way for his countrymen with a 99 average and 61.5 OChE, the three-time World Champion is not the one generating the headlines.
Wessel Nijman, the world number 55, currently has the PDC's seventh highest average and cleans up more of his legs within 18 darts than most of the Premier League.
Jermaine Wattimena is the most improved player in the PDC after success in that tournament's qualifiers boosted his average to 95.5.
Finally, World Youth Champion Gian van Veen is now the second most accurate player on doubles in the PDC, and one of only four players with an OChE above 60.
Theoretical calculations which indicate how well a player would perform on the ProTour, no matter how flattering, will not console any of these players, who have repeatedly demonstrated that they have the talent to win a tournament like the World Masters without getting close to holding the trophy.
Of the top 32 form players in the PDC, only two have celebrated their fiftieth birthdays: Jonny Clayton and Gary Anderson.
However, while Clayton remarked in a World Championship post-match interview that he doesn't think he has much time left in his career, these two veterans are making the later years of their career count.
Clayton came within one leg of winning a marathon set-play event, and though Anderson was eliminated by an in-form Dimitri Van den Bergh in the last 32 of the World Masters, he did so with an average exceeding 100, allowing him to hold on to his position as the player with the second-highest average of all Tour Card Holders.
The only thing holding them back from emulating Phil Taylor's success, it seems, is finishing: Clayton ranks 53rd and Anderson 43rd in terms of double attempts.
As the Premier League approaches, there is a clear divide in the Form Guide between the top four (LIttler, MvG, Humphries, Bunting - all of whom have recorded OChE ratings of more than 59 in their past 200 legs) and the bottom four (all of whom have OChE ratings less than 54).
In 2024, the top four combined to win ten ranking stage titles; of the remaining players, only Cross managed to take home a European Tour trophy.
For Bunting, his status as one of the four favourites is the most impressive; more than ten years have elapsed since his BDO World Championship title, and his 98 average is not only one of the best of his career, but also compares favourably with those of some of the brightest young talents of 2025.
*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