Competition points are awarded to bowlers based on where they finish in the standings and the magnitude of the tournament (major championships are worth more). Points are only awarded to full PBA members, so even if a non-member were to win a major championship, he or she would not receive any competition points.
Beginning with the 2010-2011 season, competition points were no longer used as the sole decider in naming the PBA Player of the Year. Prior, the Player of the Year Award was given to the bowler with the most competition points, no matter what. Now, the award is voted on by PBA members.
Below are the top 20 bowlers based on competition points for the 2011-2012 PBA Tour season.
2011-2012 Top 20 PBA Tour Points Leaders
| Bowler | Events | Titles | Points |
| Sean Rash | 13 | 1 | 201,293 |
| Jason Belmonte | 13 | 3 | 187,844 |
| Mike Fagan | 13 | 2 | 155,765 |
| Pete Weber | 14 | 1 | 149,127 |
| Osku Palermaa | 11 | 1 | 131,305 |
| Norm Duke | 13 | 3 | 131,104 |
| Bill O'Neill | 13 | 0 | 124,005 |
| Chris Barnes | 14 | 0 | 123,736 |
| Ryan Shafer | 14 | 0 | 118,184 |
| Ryan Ciminelli | 14 | 0 | 113,752 |
| Rhino Page | 14 | 0 | 111,542 |
| Mika Koivuniemi | 14 | 0 | 109,232 |
| Josh Blanchard | 13 | 0 | 103,108 |
| Dom Barrett | 12 | 1 | 100,794 |
| Wes Malott | 13 | 1 | 100,753 |
| Stuart Williams | 12 | 1 | 98,965 |
| Dan MacLelland | 14 | 0 | 93,414 |
| Andres Gomez | 14 | 1 | 91,390 |
| Michael Haugen, Jr. | 14 | 0 | 86,154 |
| Ronnie Russell | 14 | 0 | 83,391 |
