The 2025/26 PDC World Darts Championship will take centre-stage once again this Christmas as Luke Littler defends his title.
The 18-year-old demolished Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at the Alexandra Palace to make history as the youngest winner ever in the last edition.
3
In the end, there was no stopping The Nuke, who blasted his way to victory to claim £500,000 after defending champion Luke Humphries had been knocked out by Peter Wright.
And Littler will be back to defend his crown and look to become just the fourth player in history to win back-to-back World Championships.
There will also be a record prize fund up for grabs this time, with the winner’s pot doubling to £1million.
This is the first time in history that a darts tournament will hand out seven figures to the victor as the popularity of the sport continues to grow.
PDC World Championship 2025/26: Dates and how to follow
This year’s PDC World Darts Championship will get underway on Thursday, December 11, and run to the final on Saturday, January 3.
The whole thing will take place at the iconic Alexandra Palace in north London.
Ally Pally is now synonymous with this competition, and it will take centre-stage for the duration of the tournament.
talkSPORT will have full coverage of the competition, with more details to follow.
Sky Sports will show every match as well, with more information closer to the time.
3
PDC World Championship 2025/26: Tournament format
The draw for the World Darts Championship will take place later this year.
A date for that will be confirmed closer to the time, but last year’s was in late November.
There will be a total of 128 players at the start, and there are seven rounds until the final.
In terms of the players, the top-ranked 32 in the world automatically qualify and enter at the second round.
Another 48 will be made up of the PDC Tour Order of Merit, and the rest are qualifiers.
The first-round matches see a PDC Tour Order or Merit player take on a qualifier, with the amount of prize money across a season the deciding factor on a player’s position.
All matches are played as single in, double out – requiring players to score 501 points to win a leg, finishing on either a double or the bullseye.
For all rounds except the first, the deciding set has to be won by two clear legs unless the set score goes to 5–5, in which case a sudden-death leg will be played. There will be no throw for the bull in any sudden-death legs.
The matches get longer as the tournament progresses, with the first and second rounds being best of five and working up to the final which will be best of 13.
3
PDC World Championship 2025/26: Prize money
This edition of the showpiece darts event is set to see an unprecedented amount of prize money dished out.
The overall pot is doubling from £2.5million to £5m, and the winner will take home £1m of that.
It is the biggest prize pot in the tournament’s history and follows a massive increase from the PDC across all of its events.
Speaking about the increase, the PDC’s chief executive Matt Porter said: “The £1 million prize for the World Champion reflects darts’ standing as one of the most exciting and in-demand sports in the world and the historic total will rightly attract headlines as the biggest prize ever paid out in the sport.
“However, the increased prize funds announced today demonstrate our commitment to growing earning potential for players at all levels within the PDC system.
“Expanding the player fields for the World Darts Championship and Grand Slam of Darts will provide more opportunities than ever before for players around the world to feature in televised PDC events.
“The incredible growth of the PDC in recent years has seen darts elevated to levels never seen before both in terms of playing opportunities and global interest and this is a huge moment for all players with the ambition to make it to the very pinnacle of the sport.”
PDC World Championship 2025/26 prize pot
- Winner: £1,000,000
- Runner-Up: £400,000
- Semi-Finalists: £200,000
- Quarter-Finalists: £100,000
- Last 16 losers: £60,000
- Last 32 losers: £35,000
- Last 64 losers: £25,000
- Last 128 losers: £15,000
- Total: £5,000,000
PDC World Championship 2025/26: Schedule
Round one
- Thursday, December 11 – 7pm
- Friday, December 12 – 12:30pm
- Friday, December 12 – 7pm
- Saturday, December 13 – 12:30pm
- Saturday, December 13 – 7pm
- Sunday, December 14 – 12:30pm
- Sunday, December 14 – 7pm
- Monday, December 15 – 12:30pm
- Monday, December 15 – 7pm
- Tuesday, December 16 – 12:30pm
- Tuesday, December 16 – 7pm
- Thursday, December 11 – 7pm
- Friday, December 12 – 12.30pm
- Friday, December 12 – 7pm
- Saturday, December 13 – 12.30pm
- Saturday, December 13 – 7pm
- Sunday, December 14 – 12.30pm
- Sunday, December 14 – 7pm
- Monday, December 15 – 12.30pm
- Monday, December 15 – 7pm
- Tuesday, December 16 – 12.30pm
- Tuesday, December 16 – 7pm
Round two
- Saturday, December 20 – 12.30pm
- Saturday, December 20 – 7pm
- Sunday, December 21 – 12.30pm
- Sunday, December 21 – 7pm
- Monday, December 22 – 12.30pm
- Monday, December 22 – 7pm
- Tuesday, December 23 – 12.30pm
- Tuesday, December 23 – 7pm
Round three
- Saturday, December 27 – 12.30pm
- Saturday, December 27 – 7pm
- Sunday, December 28 – 12.30pm
- Sunday, December 28 – 7pm
- Monday, December 29 – 12.30pm
- Monday December 29 – 7pm
Round four
- Monday, December 29 – 7pm
- Tuesday December 30 – 12.30pm
- Tuesday December 30 – 7pm
Quarter-finals
- Thursday, January 1 – 12.30pm
- Thursday, January 1 – 7pm
Semi-finals
Friday, January 2 – 7.30pm
Final
Saturday, January 3 – 8pm