Heading into today's start of he Autumn Series, PDC stats analyst Christopher Kempf takes a look at which players are in best form.
With the group stages of the Premier League completing and regular action taking place between tour card holders online, darts is beginning to return to a semblance of normalcy.
So many players are taking part in the PDC's new Home Tour events that nearly every player, no matter how obscure, is becoming known to darts-hungry fans through their appearances.
Taking into account all post-pandemic matches played, including the PDC's inaugural Home Tour events, we have at least 50 legs worth of data from nearly every player with a Tour Card, making it easier to compare statistics between players - and get a better sense of who is playing well (and not) in the era of coronavirus.
On the basis of his outstanding Summer Series performance, José De Sousa leads all players with his combined 99.88 average over the span of nearly 200 legs, giving him the #1 average in post-pandemic darts.
The presence of the next four players on the table - Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Glen Durrant and Peter Wright - will surprise no one; these are all seasoned veterans of the PDC circuit and have just finished a grueling Premier League campaign.
Jonny Clayton, a finalist in the first Home Tour, ranks sixth with a 97.15 average; Krzystof Ratajski's excellent 96.95 average belies the fact that he has not reached a final in any event since March.
World Youth Champion Luke Humphries currently holds the 8th highest average in COVID-era darts; World Matchplay Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh ranks ninth, and a superb sequence of match victories in the Premier League for Nathan Aspinall push him to the 10th highest average.
Typically high averagers Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall, Adrian Lewis and Ian White are well off the pace, given their high Order of Merit rank; they hold only the 27th, 26th, 30th and 23rd highest averages, respectively.
A disappointing summer for Jeffrey de Zwaan, unable to match his 2018 World Matchplay breakthrough, sees him ranked only 62nd in averages.
After an insane output of 180s in the Premier League (which nonetheless failed to propel him to a semifinal berth), Michael Smith is again the number one hitter of three-treble visits in the PDC, taking over from Chisnall (who has slipped to #14) and MvG (now #30). A resurgent Simon Whitlock takes second place, owing in part to an impressive World Matchplay campaign.
With so little time remaining before the World Grand Prix, the race to qualify for players like Chris Dobey and Simon Whitlock (both currently outside of qualification position) will depend on continuing the run of form that has made Whitlock and Dobey the players with the 11th and 20th highest averages in the PDC.
If they can continue to hit maxima at the 2nd and 4th highest rates, Adrian Lewis and Devon Petersen (currently the last players into the Grand Prix) will be sweating it out this coming weekend.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia.