Shaun Murphy tops annual tournament attendance list on the World Snooker Tour

Murphy featured in 22 top-flight tournaments, topping the annual attendance list ahead of joint-second placed Kyren Wilson and Si Jiahui who both entered 21. Next was Mark Selby with 20. The full list can be viewed on cuetracker.net here.

In fact, Murphy only missed or didn’t appear in one competition in 2025 - the Championship League Invitational that was held near the start the year. The Englishman would have been permitted to play in it, but he elected to skip that unique, behind-closed-doors event.

‘The Magician’ has played in all 14 completed tournaments this season, so far, with that perfect attendance record streak only coming to an end just now having once again chosen not to participate in the latest Championship League Invitational, although he did star in the ranking event version of the Championship League back in the summer.

2025 was a career-invigorating year for Murphy, which begin in style when he defeated then reigning world champion Kyren Wilson 10-7 in the final at the Alexandra Palace in London to claim his second Masters crown, a decade on from his first.

Earlier in the Triple Crown event in the capital city Murphy made a maximum break during his semi-final victory over Mark Allen. A few weeks later he fashioned snooker perfection again with a 147 during the World Open in Yushan, China.

Despite his Masters triumph, Murphy was going through a drought in terms of ranking success, and as a consequence his top 16 status was in threat heading towards the World Championship. But after qualifying for all three Players Series events, he did enough to preserve his place as a seed at the Crucible Theatre and avoid the rigmarole of qualification.

However, his top 16 concerns returned come the new season, and after failing to reach the last eight in any of the opening three ranking events of the term, Murphy dropped outside of the sport's elite ranking bracket for the first time since 2006.

Similar to what John Higgins had experienced around the same time the previous year, though, Murphy responded in supreme style and got himself back in the 16 at the first possible avenue.

At the British Open held in Cheltenham towards the end of September, 2005 World Champion Murphy dismissed Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, and Mark Selby en route to the final where he got the better of Anthony McGill 10-7 to claim the 13th ranking trophy of his career - although his first in over two years.

The 43-year-old immediately followed that up with a run to the final of the Xi'an Grand Prix in the Far East, although his bid for back-to-back titles was stopped by 50-year-old Mark Williams who became professional snooker's oldest-ever ranking event champion.

Murphy's success over those two competitions saw him qualify for the Champion of Champions and get back into the world's top nine which earned him an invite to the Riyadh Season Championship invitational in Saudi Arabia.

Towards the end of the year, Murphy made the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York where he was denied by eventual champion Selby, 6-3.

Along with his media work for the BBC, his podcast, YouTube channel, and social media content, Murphy was arguably the busiest snooker player in 2025.

Following a well-deserved break over the festive period, Murphy returns to competitive action on the afternoon of Sunday 11th January when he begins the defence of his Masters title against debutant Wu Yize in the opening match of the £1 million-plus spectacular at the Ally Pally.