Eric Bristow
Peter Wright
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Eric Bristow leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Eric Bristow at #3 and Peter Wright at #10.
The case for Eric Bristow
The player who made darts a television sport. The Crafty Cockney won five world championships in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986 from ten world finals, five Winmau World Masters and two News of the World titles, and dominated the boom years so completely that his defeats became more famous than his victories — Keith Deller's 138 checkout to beat him 6-5 in the 1983 final is still the sport's best-known moment. He was the first darts player recognisable to people who never watched darts: chalk-white shirt, little finger cocked, an arrogance he cultivated deliberately because it sold tickets. Dartitis struck at the peak of his powers in the mid-1980s and he never won another world title, though he reached the finals of 1989, 1990 and 1991 while fighting it. He then bankrolled a young Stoke potter named Phil Taylor, who beat him in the 1990 final. No player has been more consequential for the sport's commercial existence.
The case for Peter Wright
The sport's most visually extravagant champion and the outstanding example of late-career transformation. Snakebite spent two decades as a journeyman, dropped off the circuit entirely to work outside the game, and returned in his forties with dyed mohican, painted snake and a wardrobe designed by his wife. He lost the 2014 world final to Michael van Gerwen, then won the title in 2020 at 49 by beating van Gerwen 7-3, and again in 2022 against Michael Smith. Three world finals, two titles, plus the 2019 World Matchplay and the 2017 UK Open among more than eight televised majors, and a spell at world number one. He is also the sport's most restless technician, changing darts, stems and flights mid-match and carrying dozens of setups to every event — the opposite of the received wisdom that a professional should find one dart and never change it.