Over the last 12 months, Peter Wright’s fall has been discussed by every fan, as the two-time World Champion finds himself threatening his professional status in the PDC. Just three years since his last major title at the European Championship, the Scotsman has fallen 30 places in the rankings to 38th in the World.

Missing out on all ranking majors and defending £69,000 in the last two months of 2026, he could lose his tour card before he knows it. What are the chances of this, though, and could he have one year left to cling to his status as a darts player?

Where He Stands

8th in the World in 2023, 13th in 2024, to 38th now is a fall that speaks for itself, but wouldn’t threaten losing a tour card. With players like Callan Rydz at 39th and Jeffrey De Graaf at 43rd, it’s explicit that he’s still in a good position and has the potential to survive another year, if not two. Delving into the financial figures, however, Wright’s 38th in the world is doing heavy lifting for the standing he may find himself in. Sitting at £237,000 in the ranking, Wright defends £69,000 from 2024 and meaning in January the worst situation the 56-year-old could find himself in is £183,000.

Although in the current PDC Order of Merit Wright would be World Number 48, other players will mostly find themselves on more prize money by the time January comes due to the increased prize money for the World Championships and Players Championship finals, meaning Wright could end up on the wrong side of the top 50 unless his World Championship earnings make up some of that £50,000. Currently, Wenig occupies the World Number 64 spot with £117,250, which, although bound to go up due to guaranteed World Championship money, doesn't even match Wright’s 2025 earnings of £134,500 alone. It would take a lot of bad luck for Wright to lose his card and, logistically, won’t happen, so why are people saying he will?

Peter Wright won his last major title at the European Championship in 2023

The Slide In Numbers

On and off the board, Wright is getting beaten. Winning just 29 matches from 75 in 2026, after a 2025 in which he still qualified for the Matchplay, the Grand Prix and the European Championship, Wright’s form has fallen off a cliff in the space of a year. Winning 53% of his matches in 2023, this figure has only dropped over the years, down 14% in two years. As well documented as this drop is, he doesn’t do himself any favours in interviews, where honest answers that fans respect only seem to chip away further at his confidence. Talking to Assendelft Media in March 2026, Wright revealed, “It’s horrible when people go ‘I want to draw him because he’s playing rubbish’”, and this statement, although transparent and true, almost admits failure too early. Knowing you're playing rubbish doesn’t help and never has done for darts players. Glen Durrant said the same in 2022, making his fall inevitable, similar to Jules Van Dongen, who struggled with dartitis, and now with Wright. Being on a list of darts’ biggest falls in the 2020s isn’t desirable, and Wright has done this to himself. The damage is not something you can measure, but his admission psychologically reinforces the long-term plan that he has this devil on his shoulder every dart, saying “he’s playing rubbish”, meaning he’s trying that extra one per cent. The short-term gain of getting it off his chest may do him favours for a couple of weeks, but publicly admitting at a major that started his elite career by winning it in 2017 that he’s playing subpar is digging a deeper hole for himself.

Wright understands the problem but has no solutions, and with 2027 meaning he defends his 2025 prize money, he may need to find these solutions quickly. In 2025, he earned £134,500, which is nearly 4x his 2026 amount so far. Reaching the Players Championship 11 final and three European Tour quarter-finals, he earned more in April to June in 2025 than he has done this year as a whole, showing how fragile next year could be for Wright. What’s worse, this downward slide won’t slow down, with every three months he faces another 5-digit figure to defend. In July to September, £15,000; September to December, £32,000. This means by July next year, he could find himself in a similar position to players like Dimitri Van Den Bergh, who have almost thrown in the towel for darts temporarily because his form is not aligning with the amount he has to defend. Averaging 87.73 in the last 12 months, the Belgian has almost come to terms that he will lose his tour card, sitting 59th in the rankings after starting 2026 25th on the PDC Order of Merit. This is key for Peter Wright because, although his 2025 ranking money doesn’t even tie Van Den Bergh’s 2024 figure he’s defended this year, it has the same implications and possible result of losing purpose midway through the year. Averaging 88.54 in the last 12 months, what does this below-tour standard have to defend in 2027?

Roll-Off Arithmetic

In 2025, Peter Wright qualified for Major tournaments such as the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and European Championship. This means that Wright is defending £10,000 from the Matchplay, £7,500 twice from the European Championships and World Grand Prix, three events that he will not qualify for in 2027. This is guaranteed money to come off and guaranteed confidence shatters for Wright, and with his constant monitoring of the ranking system, he will only put more pressure on himself. At the Austrian Darts Open back in May, Wright joked with Assendelft Media that, “When I win this one, that’s 35 grand. I only need 10 grand”, showing his mental fragility and the mountain he has to climb. Ending up losing in the subsequent match, sympathy is the only expression justifiable for Wright. He knows he isn’t playing his best, and his claim later that “he shouldn’t be in a World Cup. I’m not playing well enough” again reinforces this harsh self-criticism that, in respect, is correct, but not needed for him to say that. Winning two World Cup trophies with Scotland, his acceptance is almost heartbreaking, and it won’t just be his heart that will be broken; it will be his desire to play. The ranking says 38th, but his head will say World Number 64, and this fight-or-flight for a man of such experience only causes stress on shots he used to walk in. The Scotsman is at the World Championship, meaning he can poke at least £15,000 into the defending fund of £50,000, the only real positive he could take. This means his projected earnings in 2026 will be around £40,000, a £90,000 approximate drop, which means if he continues in this form, he will lose his card and finish 2027 at World Number 73, as the current ranking system suggests. This means he may not even lose his card narrowly; he will miss it by a mile. With Van Den Bergh facing this situation in real time, how does his old roommate's fall compare?

How It Compares To Van Den Bergh’s Fall

2026 has been the Belgian’s worst darting year to date, with the only chance at a big stage being a pundit job at the Premier League of Darts in Antwerp. Winning 35% of his games in 2026, Van Den Bergh’s match record has fallen. In 2024, Van Den Bergh was much more successful than Wright, winning the UK Open, which ended his three-year major drought and picking up a World Grand Prix Semi-Final, but there were still signs similar to Wright of him falling. Averaging below 85 in 11 matches in 2024, signs of destabilising inconsistency have been there, and after this figure shot up to 32.9%, it is a much starker and bolder fall than Peter Wright. The money represents this, as Van Den Bergh’s £135,000 at number 59, with still £40,250 to defend, means he will lose his tour card, and with his 2025 figure being £74,500, nearly £50,000 off Wright, his fall was much deeper. In 2024, he earned £310,500; establishing the processes was different, but the result was the same. Dimitri Van Den Bergh bravely said to OnlineDarts in June 2026, “I didn’t do enough … It’s hard when you put it all those practice hours behind closed doors, and it doesn’t immediately translate”, showing, similarly to Wright, he knows that he’s losing money but doesn’t have any solution. Both players believe their level is better than what they show, but also beat themselves up about not being good enough. This internal contradiction, more relevant for Wright, is part of their falls, as they haven’t been psychologically up to the standard.

The last 12 months is the best metric used to compare the two, and with similar averages, it is clear to see they are on similar paths. Wright is averaging 88.54 compared to Van Den Bergh’s 87.73, and a first nine-point difference of 0.17 shows they are operating at almost identical levels. Not just this, similar checkout percentages of 37.69% compared to 33.57% show they are both pretty poor on doubles, most likely caused by the internal psychological disruption affecting every dart at doubles. What’s worrying for Wright is that Van Den Bergh is stronger in areas such as leg win percentage when throwing second and in decisive legs, meaning he deals better under pressure. Therefore, if a player who is currently battling dartitis and ranked 59th in the world is better than Wright under pressure, he is going to face a harsh reality. Van Den Bergh revealed in the same interview with OnlineDarts, “You start questioning everything, your setup, your throw, your preparation … I know what I am capable of, but right now it's about taking it step by step”. Van Den Bergh said this, but if Peter Wright said the same words, it would make nearly as much sense. Known for switching his darts, Wright has been vocal when questioning his setup over the years, and as a two-time World Champion, he knows his level. Age isn’t a limiting factor, as he peaked in his 50s.

Wright VS Van Den Bergh

How The Fall Has Happened

Take away the interviews and the ranking arithmetic, and Wright’s decline comes down to one thing: he is no longer scoring like a top-32 player. Averaging 93.31 between March and September 2025, the Scotsman had dropped to 87.32 by the middle of 2026, and his first nine tells an even harsher story, falling from 101.32 to 92.25 over the same period. Losing nine points in the opening three visits is the difference between controlling a leg and chasing one, and his 180s per leg falling from 0.25 to 0.17 confirms that the heavy scoring that won him two world titles has deserted him.

What makes this so frustrating for Wright is that his finishing has actually improved. His functional doubles have climbed from 43.86% to 47.47%, and with an opponent sitting on a double, his checkout rate has jumped from 33.66% to 48.28%. Snakebite can still hit the shot when it matters. The problem is how rarely he gets the chance, arriving at his doubles a visit or two after the player opposite him. The clearest proof is in his deciding legs, where his average has fallen from 95.62 to 80.34 in the latest quarter. With everything on the line, Wright is scoring like a player outside the top 64, and that is where his 8–15 record in matches decided by one leg comes from.

Peter Wright's Tour Card will not be in problem for next year, but needs to perform to keep it in 2028

Wright’s Quarterly Stats

Glimpses of the old Wright are still there. Averaging 98.98 against Andrew Gilding and 98.12 against Jeffrey de Graaf, he lost both matches, but showed the level hasn’t vanished completely. What has changed is how rarely it appears: just one 100-plus average from 75 matches in 2026, and 18 below 85. At the UK Open, Wright insisted, “I just need to find that spark again on the floor and bring it straight to the main stage.” Seven months on, the floor has given him very little, with 16 opening-round exits from 30 Players Championships. The spark he spoke about in March has yet to show, and with his 2025 money ready to drop off, he has twelve months to find it before the rankings stop protecting him.

The Route Back

What is the route back? Is there anything that could salvage this for Wright? Losing by one leg is often the difference between heartbreak and hope, and Wright has lost 15 matches by one leg. This isn’t a psychological issue or an equipment issue; this is just 1 minute where Wright, after pushing his opponent to the edge, has fallen at the last hurdle. If Wright wants any rescue, winning these matches more often than not would be a good starting point to build his confidence and start getting into more second-round fixtures, rather than leaving Players Championship events empty-handed at a net loss.