2025 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2024/25 Paddy Power World Darts Championship) was a professional darts tournament that was held from 15 December 2024 to 3 January 2025 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It was the thirty-second World Darts Championship to be organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and the eighteenth to be held at Alexandra Palace. The winner received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,500,000.

The tournament featured 96 players, with the top 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded through to the second round. Luke Humphries was the defending champion, having defeated Luke Littler 7–4 in the 2024 final. However, Humphries lost 4–1 to Peter Wright in the fourth round.

In his 3–1 second-round victory over Ryan Meikle, Littler set a new record for the highest three-dart set average in a World Championship match, with 140.91 in the final set. Littler went on to beat Nathan Aspinall 5–2 in the quarter-finals and Stephen Bunting 6–1 in the semi-finals to reach a second consecutive final, where he defeated Michael van Gerwen 7–3 to win his first world title. Aged 17 years and 347 days, Littler became the youngest world champion in darts history. He also won the Ballon d'Art trophy for scoring the most 180s in the tournament, with 76.

Christian Kist and Damon Heta both hit nine-dart finishes at the tournament, with both players earning a £60,000 bonus.

Overview

The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship was the 32nd World Darts Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and the 18th to be held at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It took place from 15 December 2024 to 3 January 2025. The championship featured 96 participants, with the top 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded through to the second round. The 32 qualifiers from the Pro Tour Order of Merit and the 32 other players from various qualifiers start in the first round.

Irish gambling company Paddy Power continued their sponsorship of the event, having agreed a three-year contract with the PDC ahead of the 2024 edition. As part of its promotion of the event, Paddy Power announced 'The Bigger 180' campaign, for which the bookmaker would, as last year, donate £1,000 to charity Prostate Cancer UK for every maximum score of 180 achieved during the tournament, while also introducing a £180,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish hit at the tournament, shared equally between the charity, the player, and a fan in the Alexandra Palace crowd.

Going into the event, the previous year's finalists were viewed by bookmakers as the tournament favourites with Luke Littler having won the Premier League, the World Series Finals, and the Grand Slam of Darts, and defending champion Luke Humphries having won the World Matchplay and the Players Championship Finals.

Format

All matches were played as straight in (player begins scoring with their first throw no matter what section is hit), double out (a segment on the outer ring or the bullseye), requiring the players to score 501 points to win a leg, finishing on a double. The matches were played in the set format, with a minimum of three sets required to win a match. The following rules are observed:

• All sets were played to the best of five legs in the first round, and also in non-deciding sets of subsequent rounds.

• In the deciding set of all but the first round, the first player to win at least three legs and be leading by two or more won the set and the match. If the set reached a 5–5 tie without a winner, it was decided by a sudden-death leg with no throw for the bull.

Ranking

The rankings on the PDC Order of Merit are calculated on a two-year basis. Players who participated in the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship were defending their prize money from that event on their ranking. At the end of the tournament, the PDC Order of Merit prize money from that event was deleted from their ranking. After the tournament, the top 64 in the PDC Order of Merit received a one-year extension on their tour card. Players in the final year of their tour card, or that do not hold a tour card for the 2024 season, who finished the tournament outside the top 64 lost their tour card, unless players inside the top 64 resign their tour card, which Steve Beaton did when he retired from the professional game.

Prize money

The total prize pool for the tournament remained at £2.5 million in total for the seventh year in a row. Tournament sponsors Paddy Power pledged a £60,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish hit during the tournament to each of the players, Prostate Cancer UK, and a fan in the Alexandra Palace crowd during the match it was hit. Christian Kist hit a nine-darter in his first round match against Madars Razma. Damon Heta hit the second nine-darter of the tournament in his third round match against Luke Woodhouse.

Qualification

96 players competed in the event, with the thirty-two highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded to the second round. The top 32 not yet qualified players from the 2024 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit and the 32 international qualifiers entered in the first round.

Seeds

Luke Humphries, the reigning 2024 PDC World Champion, the World Matchplay, and Players Championship Finals champion, and the Premier League, UK Open, and World Grand Prix runner-up was top of the two-year Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament. The 2023 world champion and 2024 World Series Finals runner-up Michael Smith was the second seed. Michael van Gerwen, the 2014, 2017 and 2019 PDC World Champion and 2024 Masters and World Matchplay runner-up was the third seed. Luke Littler, the 2024 Premier League, Grand Slam and World Series Finals champion, and the runner-up at the 2024 PDC World Championship and Players Championship Finals was the fourth seed. 2018 world champion, Rob Cross, was the fifth seed.

As well as Humphries, Smith, van Gerwen and Cross, four other previous PDC world champions qualified as seeds: 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price was the tenth seed, 2015 and 2016 world champion Gary Anderson was seeded fourteenth, 2020 and 2022 world champion Peter Wright was the seventeenth seed, and 2007 world champion Raymond van Barneveld was the thirty-second seed. 2014 BDO World Champion and 2024 Masters champion Stephen Bunting was the eighth seed. He was one of two former BDO world champions to qualify as seeds, alongside 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005 BDO world champion van Barneveld.

The top seeds behind Humphries, Smith, van Gerwen, Littler and Cross were Dave Chisnall, 2023 World Matchplay runner-up Jonny Clayton, Bunting, 2024 UK Open semi-finalist Damon Heta, Price, 2024 UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, 2023 World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall, 2022 UK Open champion Danny Noppert, Anderson, 2023 Masters champion Chris Dobey and 2023 European Championship runner-up James Wade. Other tournament winners to qualify as seeds were 2022 European Champion Ross Smith as the nineteenth seed, 2023 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding as the twenty-first seed, 2022 Masters champion Joe Cullen as the twenty-third seed, 2024 World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker as the twenty-fourth seed, 2018 Players Championship Finals champion Daryl Gurney as twenty-seventh seed and 2024 European Champion Ritchie Edhouse as the twenty-ninth seed. Edhouse had previously led the non–seeded Pro Tour Order of Merit qualifiers prior to his major win. The 2023 World Championship semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens qualified as twenty-seventh seed, while 2024 World Youth Champion Gian van Veen was the twenty-eighth seed and 2024 quarter-finalist Brendan Dolan was the thirtieth seed.

Pro Tour qualification

Cameron Menzies was the highest-ranked non-seed on the 2024 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit and one of four Pro Tour event winners in 2024 to qualify via the Pro Tour, alongside Wessel Nijman, Wesley Plaisier and Alan Soutar. Two players who were runners-up in PDC majors in 2024 qualified via the Pro Tour, Jermaine Wattimena at the 2024 European Championship and Martin Lukeman at the Grand Slam.

Other players qualifying via the 2024 Pro Tour included event winners from 2023 Ricardo Pietreczko, Ryan Joyce, Callan Rydz and Kim Huybrechts as well as 2024 UK Open semi-finalist and 2024 Pro Tour event runner-up Ricky Evans.

2024 World Championship semi-finalist and 2022 Pro Tour event winner Scott Williams also qualified alongside Connor Scutt, the 2024 Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner, and a Pro Tour event runner-up in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Scutt and Wesley Plaisier also qualified for the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship but withdrew in order to play at the Alexandra Palace.

Jeffrey de Graaf, a 2024 Pro Tour event runner-up, qualified via both the 2024 Pro Tour and the PDC Nordic and Baltic circuit but was drawn as a Pro Tour qualifier.

Other players qualifying via their Pro Tour ranking included 2024 European Championship semi-finalist Luke Woodhouse, 2017 Champions League of Darts winner Mensur Suljović, 13-time PDC ranking event winner Ian White and 2024 Grand Slam semi-finalist Mickey Mansell.

Plaisier and James Hurrell made their PDC World Darts Championship debuts.