End of season world snooker rankings review, where does Crucible title winner Zhao Xintong go in the rankings?

Snooker uses a prize-money based, two-year rolling ranking system, meaning the professional standings get updated after every ranked event. As the World Championship is the richest tournament on the circuit, it often means there is plenty of change when the rankings get revised on Tuesday morning.

And that is certainly the case here, as champion Zhao - who competed in this year's blue riband event as an invited amateur without an active professional tour card - went from being unranked to shooting up into the world’s top 16.

Amateurs/non-tour card holders playing in World Snooker Tour professional events have been eligible to collect ranking points for several years now. It means they can qualify for Players Series events via the one-year list, and if they can obtain enough prize money, they are also able to break into the world’s top 64 on the official two-year list - exactly what Zhao has done.

No one had previously done this before, however, James Cahill - who as an amateur, qualified for the Crucible in 2019 and reached the last 16 after sensationally defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan in round one - nearly went into the top 64 without a tour card.

There has been some confusion surrounding whether Zhao keeps his ranking points - as per previous correspondence sent out to players - but the World Snooker Tour has confirmed that Zhao does keep them, and admitted that they should have worded this scenario more clearly.

Zhao collected £500,000 for becoming China and Asia's first world professional snooker champion - and along with the £10,000 he earned for making the last 32 of the UK Championship earlier in the season - he goes up to number 11 in the world rankings.

As the reigning world champion, though, Zhao will be seeded at least number two for all events next season anyway - another rule that the World Snooker Tour have had in place for many years. Whoever is the defending champion of an event is seed number one, the world champion is seed number two, then the remaining seedings are determined by the world rankings.

Who is the end of season world number one for 2024/25. Which players finished in the top 16?

Even before a ball was struck in the 2025 World Snooker Championship, Judd Trump was guaranteed to keep his world number one spot regardless of what happened in Sheffield.

Having made the semi-finals, Trump actually extends his lead at the top of the rankings, and he is nearly £680,000 clear of the world number two Kyren Wilson who collected no ranking points from this year's Crucible after going out in round one as a top 16 seed.

Fifty-year-old Mark Williams' amazing effort of reaching his fifth world final has pushed him up three places to world number three. Fellow 'Class of 92' members John Higgins (4th) and Ronnie O'Sullivan (5th) are also in the top five.

Despite going out in the last 16, Ding is a big winner in the latest rankings update as he has gone up four places from 10th to 6th.

Going in the opposite direction is Mark Selby, who has gone down four places from 3rd to 7th, this is because Selby was defending £200,000 from being the runner-up two years ago, and not depositing anything this year after going out first round to Ben Woollaston.

Mark Allen began the season as the world number one, but he finishes it in tenth, after a largely frustrating campaign where he was defending a lot of serious prize money points.

Because of his brilliant run over the last few weeks, Crucible quarter-finalist Chris Wakelin goes up four spots from 20th and back into the sport's elite bracket in 16th.

Neil Robertson (8th), Barry Hawkins (9th), Zhang Anda (12th), Xiao Guodong (13th), Shaun Murphy (14th), Si Jiahui (15th) are the other members of the current top 16.

Ali Carter is the player on the bubble in 17th.

Other stories and notable movements elsewhere in the rankings

The player to suffer the biggest drop in the latest rankings revision was Luca Brecel, who was defending £500,000 from his total following his Crucible crowning in 2023.

Despite some swashbuckling snooker and a fantastic effort in Sheffield in reaching the last eight, the £50,000 Brecel banked meant his ranking suffered a net loss of £450,000. That equates to a 32-place drop for the Belgian from 7th to 39th. Being outside the top 16/top 32 means Brecel is set to miss out on lucrative invitationals and needing to qualify for several ranking tournaments.

One of the biggest success stories of the season has been Lei Peifan, who only returned to the professional tour at the start of it.

During his first year back in the big time, the young Chinese cueist won his maiden ranking event at the Scottish Open, qualified for and defeated the defending champion at the Crucible, and finished the campaign inside the top 32 in 31st - an incredible achievement having started the term with no points.

Crucible debutant Daniel Wells went up five places from 49th to 44th. Aaron Hill (55th to 50th) and Jamie Jones (60th to 51st) were both rewarded for making the final round of World Championship qualifying.

Players to have experienced drops include two-time ranking event winner Robert Milkins - who was a top 16 seed at last year's Crucible - (41st to 49th), Scott Donaldson (47th to 55th) and Anthony McGill (42nd to 59th). McGill's dip was particularly steep as he made the quarter-finals of the World Championship two years ago, but lost his opening qualifying match this time around.

Dominic Dale has officially retired from the professional tour and been removed from the rankings.

Graeme Dott is currently suspended from the World Snooker Tour, but he remains 61st in the rankings.

Cao Yupeng did not feature at all last season - despite renewing his playing membership - but keeps a place in the world rankings in 62nd after a very fruitful 2023/24 term.

India's Ishpreet Singh Chadha (63rd) and England's Stan Moody (64th) both finish inside the world's top 64 after their first two seasons on the professional circuit - a very fine achievement. We'll see them both on tour again next season.

Zak Surety - who helped light up the Crucible on debut when he compiled four century breaks - finishes in 65th, although he was only on the first year of a two-year tour card. As a result, with no points to defend during the 2025/26 term, Surety could rise significantly up the pecking order over the coming months.

For the full world rankings list after the 2025 World Snooker Championship, please visit the World Snooker Tour’s website here.

We are soon to release an article looking at the players who retained their tour card for next season, and those who were relegated.