Michael Smith has dropped out of the PDC top 32 for the first time since 2013, marking the latest setback in a difficult spell for the former world champion. The 2023 Ally Pally winner and former world number one now sits 33rd on the live PDC Order of Merit after falling two places, with £304,500 in ranking money. Smith is also only 36th on the year-to-date Order of Merit, having earned £53,000 so far in 2026.
It is a striking fall for a player who was standing on top of the sport less than four years ago. Smith’s World Championship win over Michael van Gerwen in January 2023 ended years of major-final frustration and delivered one of the most famous nights in modern darts, complete with his nine-darter in the same leg that Van Gerwen missed double 12 for one of his own. That victory lifted Smith to world number one and seemed to confirm his place among the sport’s dominant forces. Since then, his place in the rankings has become increasingly fragile.
Smith’s ranking fall has come during a long run of physical problems. The St Helens thrower has dealt with ankle trouble, cortisone injections and wrist issues linked to an old break, all of which have affected his ability to practise as he once did. Before the 2026 World Championship, Smith had already spoken about the impact of those problems, admitting that his old five or six-hour practice sessions had become difficult to sustain. The issues followed him into the new season. Smith missed the International Darts Open in Riesa for another cortisone appointment after further ankle trouble, having said his ankles had suffered “constant swelling” and that he had been “unable to walk for 4/5 days straight.”
His 2026 campaign has not been without signs of life. Smith reached the Players Championship 11 final, losing 8-7 to Beau Greaves as she became the first woman to win a PDC ranking title. He has also made European Tour quarter-finals, but those runs have not stopped his slide outside the world’s top 32. Smith's last big TV title came at the 2024 World Cup of Darts.
Smith’s years since the world title have also included a major equipment change. Soon after winning at Alexandra Palace, he ended his long-running partnership with Unicorn and joined Shot Darts while reigning world champion and world number one. The timing raised eyebrows then and remains attached to the wider discussion around Smith’s form since his greatest career night. Smith has not publicly framed that switch as the source of his decline, but he has never again reached the same heights that followed his 2023 World Championship triumph. His fall to 33rd now places him just outside one of the sport’s key ranking lines, with World Matchplay pressure also building as the summer cut-off approaches. For a player who spent more than a decade inside the top 32, this is no ordinary ranking slip.
