Joyce began the season by winning the Pink Ribbon Pro-Am charity tournament, where he whitewashed Michael Holt 4–0 in the final. Due to his new ranking he would need to win two qualifying matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events on the snooker calendar. However, he started the season poorly and saw his ranking slip to number 51 in January, meaning he would now need to win three matches. He achieved this at the Welsh Open as he saw off Daniel Wells, Joe Jogia and held his nerve against Andrew Higginson in a final frame decider to book his place in the main draw, where he played Shaun Murphy.&lt;ref name="2011/12"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; A huge shock appeared to be in the offing as Joyce raced into a 2–0 lead, but Murphy found his form and four frames in a row to triumph. Joyce failed to win another qualifying match in the remaining three tournaments, concluding with a 4–10 loss to David Morris in the World Championship. He finished the season ranked world number 59, dropping 17 places from his starting point, but still inside the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012–13 season.