thumb|alt=Steve Davis playing snooker|[[Steve Davis (pictured in 2014) topped the ranking list for the first time.]]
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, for each tournament the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second.
A ranking list for the 1983–84 snooker season was issued by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) following the 1983 World Snooker Championship. Players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1981, 1982 and 1983) contributed to their points total. For 1981 and 1982, the World Champion gained five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, losing quarter-finalists got two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point, while for 1983 the points were double this. For the first time, tournaments other than world championship were taken into account, with the 1982 International Open and 1982 Professional Players Tournament both at the same points tariff as the 1981 and 1982 World Championships.
Steve Davis was the top-ranked player for the first time, displacing Ray Reardon who moved to second place. Cliff Thorburn retained third place from the previous year, and Tony Knowles rose from fifteenth up to fourth.
Rankings
The rankings including players with merit points (which are indicated with a symbol) are shown below. || 5 || 1 || 0 || 6 || 11
|-
!scope=row |6
|data-sort-value="Charlton, Eddie" align=left | || 1 || 3 || 0 || 3 || 4 || 11
|-
!scope=row |7
|data-sort-value="Stevens, Kirk" align=left | || 1 || 2 || 3 || 0 || 4 || 10
|-
!scope=row |8
|data-sort-value="Werbeniuk, Bill" align=left | || 2 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 4 || 10
|-
!scope=row |9
|data-sort-value="Griffiths, Terry" align=left | || 2 || 0 || 2 || 2 || 2 || 8
|-
!scope=row |10
|data-sort-value="Taylor, David" align=left | || 2 || 0 || 4 || 0 || 2 || 8
|-
!scope=row |11
|data-sort-value="White, Jimmy" align=left | || 0 || 3 || 1 || 4 || 0 || 8
|-
!scope=row |12
|data-sort-value="Mountjoy, Doug" align=left | || 4 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 7
|-
!scope=row |13
|data-sort-value="Taylor, Dennis" align=left | || 2 || 0 || 2 || 1 || 2 || 7
|-
!scope=row |14
|data-sort-value="Virgo, John" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 3 || 3 || 0 || 7
|-
!scope=row |15
|data-sort-value="Meo, Tony" align=left | || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 4 || 6
|-
!scope=row |16
|data-sort-value="Spencer, John" align=left | || 1 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 6
|-
!scope=row |17
|data-sort-value="Mans, Perrie" align=left | || 1 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 2 || 5
|-
!scope=row |18
|data-sort-value="Thorne, Willie" align=left | || 0 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 4
|-
!scope=row |19
|data-sort-value="Reynolds, Dean" align=left | || – || 1 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 4
|-
!scope=row |20
|data-sort-value="Wilson, Cliff" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 3
|-
!scope=row |21
|data-sort-value="Francisco, Silvino" align=left | || – || 2 || – || – || 0 || 2
|-
!scope=row |22
|data-sort-value="Miles, Graham" align=left | || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 2
|-
!scope=row |23
|data-sort-value="Johnson, Joe" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 2
|-
!scope=row |24
|data-sort-value="Wildman, Mark" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |25
|data-sort-value="Fagan, Patsy" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |26
|data-sort-value="Sinclair, Eddie" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |27
|data-sort-value="MacLeod, Murdo" align=left | || – || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |28
|data-sort-value="Davis, Fred" align=left | || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |29
|data-sort-value="Martin, Dave" align=left | || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 1 || 3.5
|-
!scope=row |30
|data-sort-value="Williams, Rex" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0.5 || 0.5 || 1 || 3
|-
!scope=row |31
|data-sort-value="Meadowcroft, Jim" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0.5 || 0.5 || 1 || 3
|-
!scope=row |32
|data-sort-value="Hallett, Mike" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 1 || 2.5
|-
!scope=row |33
|data-sort-value="Dunning, John" align=left | || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0|| 2
|-
!scope=row |34
|data-sort-value="Edmonds, Ray" align=left | || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0 || 1.5
|-
!scope=row |35
|data-sort-value="Hughes, Eugene" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 1 || 1.5
|-
!scope=row |36
|data-sort-value="Dodd, Les" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 1 || 1.5
|-
!scope=row |37
|data-sort-value="Fisher, Mick" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 1 || 1.5
|-
!scope=row |38
|data-sort-value="Fitzmaurice, Jack" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0.5 || 0 || 0 || 1.5
|-
!scope=row |39
|data-sort-value="Campbell, John" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 1
|-
!scope=row |40
|data-sort-value="Black, Ian" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 1
|-
!scope=row |41
|data-sort-value="Donnelly, Jim" align=left | || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |42
|data-sort-value="Watterson, Mike" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0.5 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |43
|data-sort-value="Wych, Jim" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0.5 || 0 || 1
|-
!scope=row |44
|data-sort-value="Kelly, Billy" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0 || 0.5
|-
!scope=row |45
|data-sort-value="Jonik, Frank" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0.5
|-
!scope=row |46
|data-sort-value="Roscoe, Colin" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0 || 0.5
|-
!scope=row |47
|data-sort-value="Everton, Clive" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0.5
|-
!scope=row |48
|data-sort-value="Rea, Jackie" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0.5
|-
!scope=row |49
|data-sort-value="Scott, George" align=left | || 0 || 0 || 0.5 || 0 || 0 || 0.5
|}