On the second day of 2016 Q School, Richardson won back his tour card by beating six players in a row. A few days later he qualified for the first two European Tour events of the year and credited his resurgence in form to practicing with his son Joshua, who had recently won the BDO World Youth Championship. He lost 6–1 to Terry Jenkins in the second round of the Dutch Darts Masters, but at the German Darts Masters he eliminated Andrew Gilding 6–1, Jenkins 6–2 and Adrian Lewis 6–3 to reach the quarter-finals of a PDC event for the first time in nearly four years. Richardson averaged 99.25, but was defeated 6–2 by Peter Wright. He was also knocked out in the second round of the Austrian Darts Open and European Darts Open as well as the first round of the International Darts Open. This saw Richardson placed 31st on the European Order of Merit to make his debut in the European Championship. He beat Jamie Caven 6–3 in the first round, before losing 10–4 to Kyle Anderson.