The nights are drawing in and Christmas decorations are about to go up — that only means one thing: the World Darts Championship is back.
This year’s tournament is the biggest yet, with an expanded 128-player field competing for a share of the £5 million prize fund which contains an eye-popping £1 million cheque for the winner.
Seeded players need to play an extra match to reach the final year — they are joining from the first round — and there are five women set to stand behind the oche at Alexandra Palace for the first time.
Fresh from becoming the new world No. 1, defending champion Luke Littler heads to Alexandra Palace as the bookies’ favourite, but Luke Humphries has proclaimed that he will secure his second title.
– Luke Littler darts titles, prize money, career history, more
– Stephen Bunting darts titles, prize money, career history, more
– Who is Beau Greaves? Darts titles, prize money, career history
World Darts Championship schedule
Round One (best of 5 sets)
Thursday Dec. 11 from 7 p.m. GMT
Kim Huybrechts vs. Arno Merk
(28) Michael Smith vs. Lisa Ashton
(1) Luke Littler vs. Darius Labanauskas
Madars Razma vs. Jamai van den Herik
Friday Dec. 12 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Niels Zonneveld vs. Haupai Puha
Ian White vs. Mervyn King
(20) Ryan Searle vs. Chris Landman
(17) Rob Cross vs. Cor Dekker
Friday Dec. 12 from 7 p.m. GMT
(12) Ross Smith vs. Andreas Harrysson
Ricky Evans vs. Man Lok Leung
(10) Gian van Veen vs. Cristo Reyes
(16) Damon Heta vs. Steve Lennon
Saturday Dec. 13 from 12.30 GMT
Mario Vandenbogaerde vs. David Davies
Andrew Gilding vs. Cam Crabtree
(25) Luke Woodhouse vs. Boris Krcmar
(14) Gary Anderson vs. Adam Hunt
Saturday Dec. 13 from 7p.m.GMT
Jeffrey de Graaf vs. Paul Lim
(31) Wessel Nijman vs. Karel Sedlacek
(2) Luke Humphries vs. Ted Evetts
Gabriel Clemens vs. Alex Spellman
Sunday Dec. 14 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
(27) Ritchie Edhouse vs. Jonny Tata
Dom Taylor vs. Oskar Lukasiak
Richard Veenstra vs. Nitin Kumar
(32) Joe Cullen vs. Bradley Brooks
Sunday Dec. 14 from 7 p.m. GMT
Lukas Wenig vs. Wesley Plaisier
(23) Dimitri Van den Bergh vs. Darren Beveridge
(4) Stephen Bunting vs. Sebastian Bialecki
James Hurrell vs. Stowe Buntz
Monday Dec. 15 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Brendan Dolan vs. Tavis Dudeney
(26) Cameron Menzies vs. Charlie Manby
Mensur Suljovic vs. David Cameron
(30) Peter Wright vs. Noa-Lynn van Leuven
Monday Dec. 15 from 7 p.m. GMT
Martin Lukeman vs. Max Hopp
(29) Dirk van Duijvenbode vs. Andy Baetens
(5) Jonny Clayton vs. Adam Lipscombe
Connor Scutt vs. Simon Whitlock
Tuesday Dec. 16 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Alan Soutar vs. Teemu Harju
Nick Kenny vs. Justin Hood
Scott Williams vs. Paolo Nebrida
(8) Chris Dobey vs. Xiaochen Zong
Tuesday Dec. 16 from 7 p.m. GMT
Ricardo Pietreczko vs. Jose de Sousa
(6) Danny Noppert vs. Jurjen van der Velde
(9) Gerwyn Price vs. Adam Gawlas
Niko Springer vs. Joe Comito
Wednesday Dec. 17 from 7 p.m. GMT
Matt Campbell vs. Adam Sevada
Raymond van Barneveld vs. Stefan Bellmont
(7) James Wade vs. Ryusei Azemoto
(13) Martin Schindler vs. Stephen Burton
Thursday Dec. 18 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Callan Rydz vs. Patrik Kovacs
Thibault Tricole vs. Motomu Sakai
(24) Ryan Joyce vs. Owen Bates
(18) Mike De Decker vs. David Munyua
Thursday Dec. 18 from 7 p.m. GMT
(19) Jermaine Wattimena vs. Dominik Gruellich
(21) Dave Chisnall vs. Fallon Sherrock
(3) Michael van Gerwen vs. Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Alexis Toylo
Friday Dec. 19 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Kevin Doets vs. Matthew Dennant
Ryan Meikle vs. Jesus Salate
Mickey Mansell vs. Leonard Gates
(11) Josh Rock vs. Gemma Hayter
Friday Dec. 19 from 7 p.m. GMT
William O’Connor vs. Krzysztof Kciuk
(22) Daryl Gurney vs. Beau Greaves
(15) Nathan Aspinall vs. Lourence Ilagan
Keane Barry vs. Tim Pusey
Round Two (best of 5 sets)
Saturday Dec. 20 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Saturday Dec. 20 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 21 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 21 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 22 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 22 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 23 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 23 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Round Three (best of 7 sets)
Saturday Dec. 27 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Saturday Dec. 27 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Sunday Dec. 28 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Sunday Dec. 28 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Monday Dec. 29 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Monday Dec. 29 from 7 p.m. GMT
One match
Round Four (best of 7 sets)
Monday Dec. 29 from 7 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Tuesday Dec. 30 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Tuesday Dec. 30 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Quarterfinals (best of 9 sets)
Thursday Jan. 1 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Thursday Jan. 1 from 7 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Semifinals (best of 11 sets)
Friday Jan. 2 from 7. 30 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Final (best of 13 sets)
Saturday Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. GMT
One match
What is the prize money?
The 128-player field is competing for a share of the £5 million total prize fund, with the winner taking home a staggering £1 million — double the amount won by Littler last year.
Round-by-round breakdown:
Bonus prize money available:
– World Darts Championship prize money: All-time stats
How to watch?
The World Darts Championship will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports in the UK.
What is the format?
Matches at the World Darts Championship are decided by legs and sets. As with all PDC tournaments, the games are played in the 501 format, where players look to reduce their score from 501 to zero as efficiently as possible, finishing with a double.
The highest-score available in a single visit is 180 (three darts in the triple 20), while the fastest way to finish a game is with a nine-dart leg. Each successful finish counts as one leg, and the first player to win three legs secures a set.
The number of sets required to win varies by round. In the first and second rounds, matches are played in a best-of-five sets format. In the third round and the Round of 16, matches are played to the best of seven sets.
In the quarterfinals, the winner is determined in a best-of-nine-sets format, while the semifinals are played in a best-of-11-sets match. The final follows a best-of-13-sets format, where the first player to win seven sets is crowned the world champion. — Keith Jenkins
Has there been a nine-darter?
If this year’s event is anything like the last one, we may not have to wait long to see nine perfect darts.
Christian Kist threw one in the opening set of his first-round match 12 months ago. In doing so, the Dutchman picked up a £60,000 bonus.
His feat was matched by Damon Heta in the third round. The nine-darters weren’t enough to take either player through, though, with Kist losing to Madars Razma and Heta succumbing to Luke Woodhouse.
As if going into the darts history books wasn’t enough, tournament sponsors Paddy Power have confirmed that they are repeating last year’s initiative of giving £60,000 each to any player who hits a nine-darter and an additional £60,000 to both a randomly-selected member of the crowd and Prostate Cancer UK.
Who are the previous winners?
Luke Littler won the world championship last year, beating three-time champion Michael van Gerwen (2014, 2017, 2019) to do so.
Littler has a long road ahead to even get close to the 16 managed by the legendary Phil Taylor before his retirement from PDC events in 2018.
John Part (2003, 2008), Adrian Lewis (2011, 2012), Gary Anderson (2015, 2016) and Peter Wright (2020, 2022) have won two world championships each.
Dennis Priestley (1994), Raymond van Barneveld (2007), Rob Cross (2018), Gerwyn Price (2021), Michael Smith (2023) and Luke Humphries (2024) have each won one title.
ESPN’s darts page will have all the latest breaking news, features and reaction to the big moments during this year’s PDC World Darts Championship.