Steve Davis
Mark Selby
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Steve Davis leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Steve Davis at #4 and Mark Selby at #7.
The case for Steve Davis
The player who made snooker a mainstream British obsession and the most complete tactician the sport has produced. Davis won six world titles (1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989) from eight finals, took 28 ranking titles, and spent seven consecutive seasons as world number one through the 1980s. With six UK Championships and three Masters he finished on 15 Triple Crown titles. In 1982 he made the first maximum break shown on television, a 147 against John Spencer at the Lada Classic in Oldham. His game was built on percentages: safety of a quality no one could match, positional play that rationed opponents to a handful of chances, and an absence of unforced error that opponents found demoralising. He was also central to the sport's two most famous defeats, losing the 1985 final 18-17 on the last black to Dennis Taylor before an estimated 18.5 million British viewers, and losing to 150-1 outsider Joe Johnson in 1986.
The case for Mark Selby
The hardest man in modern snooker to beat over a long match. Selby has four world titles (2014, 2016, 2017, 2021) from six finals, more than 20 ranking titles, and eight Triple Crown titles including the 2012 UK Championship and three Masters (2008, 2010, 2013). He has passed 800 career centuries. His reputation rests on attrition: a safety game good enough to strangle opponents for whole sessions, an unusual willingness to play a frame out over an hour, and a recovery rate from behind that has produced repeated Crucible comebacks, most notably from 10-4 down to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2014 final. The caricature of him as purely defensive is unfair — in the 2023 world final against Luca Brecel he made the first maximum break ever compiled in a World Championship final. Known as the Jester from Leicester, he has spent long spells as world number one across three separate periods.