PDC World Darts Championship

and Kevin Painter at the 2010 championship In 1992, some high-profile players, including all previous winners of the BDO World Darts Championship still active in the game, formed the WDC, and in 1994, held their first World Championship. Dennis Priestley won the inaugural competition. The players who broke away were taking a significant gamble – the tournament was broadcast on satellite television rather than terrestrial, and from 1994 to 2001, the prize fund for the players in the WDC/PDC World Championship was lower than the prize fund in the BDO version, although the 1997 PDC World Champion received £45,000 compared to that year's BDO World Champion receiving £38,000. In 2002, the PDC prize fund overtook that of the BDO for the first time, and the PDC event now boasts the largest prize fund of any darts competition. In 2010, the prize fund reached £1 million for the first time, with the champion collecting £200,000. The 2014 and 2015 PDC world champions collected £250,000 for their wins. For the next three years, the winner's share increased by £50,000 each year culminating in a 2018 prize fund of £1.8 million. The prize fund for the tournament was £2.5 million with £500,000 to the winner from 2019. The 2025/26 World Championship will see the field expand to 128 players with the prize fund increasing to £5 million with a record £1 million to the champion. In the 2001 PDC World Darts Championship Gayl King became the first woman to play in the PDC World Darts Championship. Since then Anastasia Dobromyslova, Deta Hedman, Lisa Ashton, Fallon Sherrock, Mikuru Suzuki, Beau Greaves and Noa-Lynn van Leuven have all played in the PDC World Darts Championship. In the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship Sherrock became the first woman to defeat a man in the PDC World Darts Championship, when she defeated Ted Evetts. In the next round she also defeated Mensur Suljovic before losing to Chris Dobey. Sherrock remains the only woman to defeat a man in the PDC World Darts Championship. ==Venue==

The tournament has been held at Alexandra Palace in London since 2008, having previously been held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex, from 1994 to 2007. Currently, the play takes place inside the venue's West Hall, which has a capacity of 3,200. From the edition of 2027, the play will take place at the Great Hall, which expands the capacity to 5,000. ==List of finals==

Total finalist appearances • Active players are shown in bold • Only players who reached the final are included • In the event of identical records, players are sorted by date first achieved Champions by country Nine-dart finishes Sixteen nine-dart finishes have been thrown at the World Championship. The first one was in 2009. Two have been made in world finals: firstly by Adrian Lewis in 2011 and then Michael Smith in 2023. Averages Since the breakaway of the PDC players, there has been much debate about the relative merits of the players within each organisation. The debate often focuses on the three-dart averages of players in matches. In 2010 Phil Taylor became the first player to average over 100 in all six rounds of the tournament. He repeated this feat (though lost the final) in 2015 and Michael van Gerwen achieved it in 2017 and 2019. Note: Tournament averages above were calculated by summing the match averages of a player by the number of matches. This does not take into account the length of the matches. The true three dart average is defined by three times the "total points scored" divided by the "number of darts used". The real 2017 tournament average for Michael van Gerwen was 107.06. Records :Most titles: 14, Phil Taylor. Taylor's two BDO titles take his total to 16, a record across both organisations. :Most finals: 19, Phil Taylor, 1994–2007, 2009–2010, 2013, 2015 and 2018. :Longest unbeaten run: 44 matches, Phil Taylor, 1995–2003, between his defeats in the 1994 and 2003 finals. :Most 180s in a tournament (total): 1,127 (2026). :Most 180s in a tournament (individual): 83, Michael Smith (2022) :Most 180s in a match: 24, Peter Wright (2022 semi-final) and Michael Smith (2022 final) :Most 180s in a match (both players): 42, Gary Anderson (22) and Michael van Gerwen (20) (2017 final) :Longest streak of 100+ averages: 19 matches, Michael van Gerwen, 2016–2019 :Highest Average for one set: 140.91, Luke Littler, 2nd round 2025 championship. :Most appearances: 25, Phil Taylor. :Youngest player: Mitchell Clegg, 16 years and 37 days in 2007. Clegg had qualified as a 15-year-old. He was younger than Michael van Gerwen, who set the BDO World Championship youngest player record a few weeks later. :Youngest finalist: Luke Littler, 16 years and 347 days in the 2024 final. Littler was 4 years and 106 days younger than Kirk Shepherd, who reached the final in 2008. :Record TV audience UK: 3.71 million (2024 final) :Record TV audience outside UK: 3.10 million peak viewership and 2.19 million average viewership (2025 Final). The record was set during the German broadcast (Sport1) of the 2025 final between Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler. :Won both World Championships: Four players. Dennis Priestley was the first player to win both versions of the World Championship, winning the 1991 BDO Championship and the 1994 PDC Championship. Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have since matched the feat. :Youngest Player to win a match: Luke Littler was 16 years and 333 days when he won a match in 2024 event. ==Media==

Domestic broadcaster The PDC World Championship has been broadcast live and in its entirety by Sky Sports in the UK since its inception. Since 2009 the tournament has been presented in High Definition (HD). Their coverage is currently presented from a studio overlooking the interior of the Alexandra Palace venue. The current presenting team is as follows: • John Part: (2013–present) • Mark Webster: (2018–present) • Laura Turner: (2019–present) • Glen Durrant: (2023–present) Former presenters and commentators have been: • Dave Lanning: (1993–2010; 2013) • John Gwynne: (1993–2013; 2016) • Sid Waddell: (1994–2012) • Jeff Stelling: (1993–2002; 2005) • David Bobin: (1994; 2002–2003) • Helen Chamberlain: (2003–2009) • Jonathan Green: (2000) • Laure James (2014–2016) • Eric Bristow: (1993–2016) • Dave Clark: (2001–2020) • Colin Lloyd: (2020) • Rod Harrington: (2005–2020) • Nigel Pearson (2006–2022) • David Croft: (2013–2021) • Laura Woods: (2018–2022) • Devon Petersen: (2019–2022) • Adam Smith: (2020–2022) • Corrine Hammond: (2022–2023) Overseas broadcasters Dutch broadcaster SBS6, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, also covered the event until RTL7 took over broadcasting. TV3 Sport (Denmark), Fox Sports (Australia), TSN (Canada), SuperSport (South Africa), Sky Sport (New Zealand), StarHub (Singapore), Ten Sports (India), CCTV (China), Showtime (Middle East), Ukraine TV, TVP Sport (Poland), NOVA Sport (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sport1 (Germany, Hungary), Meersat (Malaysia), 7TV (Russia), Measat (Indonesia), J Sports (Japan), DAZN (USA, Italy), GOL TV (Spain) Eurosport (Romania), Viaplay (Iceland) and VTM4 (Belgium) now also broadcast the event. Viewing figures Television viewing figures for the final are as follows: Webcasting The PDC world championship events are now broadcast on video.pdc.tv which shows the events live, highlights and also classic matches. This website is a subscription only viewing and is limited to certain territorial restrictions. Video games The PDC have worked with various video game developers since 2006 to create a number of darts-themed titles based on the World Darts Championship tournament. Their first game PDC World Championship Darts was developed by Mere Mortals for the PlayStation 2 and PC. The second game in the series was PDC World Championship Darts 2008 developed by Mere Mortals for the PlayStation 2, PC, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360. A year later Rebellion Developments took over development of the series, releasing PDC World Championship Darts 2009 for the Wii and Nintendo DS. The most recent PDC World Darts Championship console game to be released was PDC World Championship Darts Pro Tour a darts video game for the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. This game is the most comprehensive of the series featuring ten professional players and five official PDC tournaments including the PDC World Grand Prix, Las Vegas Desert Classic, PDC UK Open and the Holland Open. In 2021 the PDC collaborated with Blueprint Gaming to develop PDC World Darts Championship, an officially licensed slots game available to play on mobile devices and PC, the game was released in February 2021. ==Sponsor==

The tournament has been sponsored by bookmaker Paddy Power in 2024. Previous sponsors have been: • Skol (1994) • Proton Cars (1995) • Vernon's Pools (1996) • Red Band (1997) • Skol (1998–2002) • Ladbrokes (2003–2014) • William Hill (2015–2022) • Cazoo (2023) • Paddy Power (2024–) ==Trophy==

Following popular darts commentator Sid Waddell's death on 11 August 2012, the decision was made to rename the champion's trophy to the Sid Waddell trophy from the 2013 tournament onwards. ==Notes and references==