Best snooker players in the world 2025
Our expert round-up of the 10 best snooker players in the world in 2025.
The action-packed professional snooker circuit is enjoying somewhat of a boom period with bigger international audiences and prize funds than ever before.
Existing clients are bolstering their ties with the sport, while new markets are emerging, such as in the Middle East where several new events have recently been held.
Read more: Best snooker players of all time
The strength and depth of the World Snooker Tour player roster has never been better, with lower ranked players regularly reaching the latter stages of competitions.
With so much going on these days, it can be tricky keeping track of the form guide. Taking into consideration results, performances and reputations, RadioTimes.com attempts to rank the 10 best snooker players in the world right now.
RadioTimes.com ranks the 10 best snooker players in the world right now.
10. Ding Junhui
China’s greatest-ever player ended a near five-year wait for a ranking event title when he won the International Championship on home soil in late 2024.
Former Masters and three-time UK Championship winner Ding is not the force he once was, but he is still more than capable of getting the better of anyone on the circuit.
It is two decades since Ding changed the course of snooker history when – as an 18-year-old – he defeated Stephen Hendry in the final to win the China Open, becoming the first ranking event winner from his country.
9. Mark Williams
Three-time World Champion Mark Williams wanted to be ranked inside the world’s top 16 when he turned 50; he smashed that target as he entered his sixth decade in March 2025.
‘The Welsh Potting Machine’ enjoyed a very fruitful 2024, defeating a string of top tier and in-form opponents on his way to winning both the Tour Championship and Champion of Champions titles.
Williams narrowly missed out on the £500,000 top prize when he was dramatically pipped in the final of the first Saudi Arabia Masters by Judd Trump on the very final ball.
8. John Higgins
Having briefly slipped outside the world’s top 16 for the first time in over 29 years, John Higgins has bounced back in style and is once again looking upwards.
The Scottish ace returned to the top step of a ranking event podium for the first time in four years when he triumphed at the 2025 World Open – ending a painful run of near misses and defeats at the latter stages of several tournaments.
In 2024, four-time World Champion Higgins became only the second player in professional snooker history to have compiled 1,000 century breaks in competition.
7. Shaun Murphy
It is twenty years since a 22-year-old Shaun Murphy stunned planet snooker when he won the World Championship as a qualifier.
Ever since his greatest day at the Crucible Theatre, ‘The Magician’ has remained within the top echelons of the sport, collecting trophies at regular intervals.
In January 2025, Murphy ended a lean spell by claiming his second Masters title at the Alexandra Palace in London – making a maximum 147 break along the way – to record the fourth Triple Crown triumph of his remarkable career.
6. Mark Allen
Following the most successful era of his career to date, in 2024, Mark Allen became only the 12th player in professional snooker history to be the world number one.
The former Masters and UK Champion was the first cueist from Northern Ireland to achieve the prestigious feat; something that famed fellow countrymen Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor were both unable to scale.
After relinquishing that status in the world rankings, Allen continued to go consistently deep in subsequent tournaments and was rewarded in the final event of 2024 when he scooped the sizeable first prize at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship.
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5. Mark Selby
Having been to five of the ten previous World Championship finals – winning four of them – Mark Selby was left pondering his snooker future in 2024 when he suffered a shock first round defeat to fellow Leicester native Joe O’Connor at the Crucible.
However, there has been quite a turnaround in fortunes for Selby since that low point.
In the autumn, he claimed the British Open, and a few months later he successfully defended the Championship League Invitational. He then secured back-to-back glories at the very next event, the Welsh Open.
Selby has won at least one ranking event title in each of the past 12 calendar years.
4. Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson has emerged from a difficult baize period in emphatic fashion, and is once again one of the top favourites for any event he competes in.
In 2024, Australia’s number one fell out of the world’s top 16 and missed out on the Crucible for the first time in two decades. But he has bounced back up the global standings, winning ranking event gold at the English Open in Brentwood and the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong.
World Champion fifteen years ago, Robertson recently made an alteration to his cue by changing to a titanium ferrule and is excited about the possibilities that it has created.
3. Ronnie O'Sullivan
Following a sensational – even by his own impeccable standards – 2023/24 season where he won five titles including at the UK Championship and Masters, snooker’s greatest-ever player is enduring a trophyless spell.
Seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan’s long and unparalleled career has been full of peaks and troughs, so a period like this is not unusual, and thus his status still demands a high position on this list.
However, the record-breaking 23-time Triple Crown title champion is approaching his 50th birthday – does he still have the same desire and drive to succeed?
One thing’s for sure; you’d be foolish to write off ‘The Rocket’ - he’ll let you know when he’s finished.
2. Kyren Wilson
Kyren Wilson realised his dream in the spring of 2024 when he landed snooker’s ultimate prize at the Crucible Theatre for the first time.
Wilson has thrived as the World Champion, taking his career to new levels as he rapidly became a very consistent winner of trophies on tour.
Within the space of just 11 months, ‘The Warrior’ doubled his career ranking event tally from five to ten. As well as his world title, Wilson scooped top accolades at the Xi’an Grand Prix, Northern Ireland Open, German Masters and Players Championship.
This golden spell also included runs to the final of the Masters and the Championship League Invitational.
1. Judd Trump
A serial winner of titles over the past several years, Judd Trump is arguably the player of the decade, so far.
Such achievements and consistency pushed Trump back to the top of the world rankings where he has been a runaway number one.
In 2024, ‘The Ace in the Pack’ won five titles, including an epic, last gasp victory at the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters, and the fifth Triple Crown trophy of his career at the UK Championship in York. During the same year, Trump compiled his 1,000th century break in professional competition.
The Englishman is now fourth on the all-time list of most decorated ranking event winners. Only in his mid-30s, he could well reach the top of that list in the coming years.
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