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[BBC]
The 2026 PDC World Darts Championship gets under way on Thursday at Alexandra Palace in London.
Recently-crowned world number one, teenager Luke Littler, is the defending champion after beating Michael van Gerwen in the 2025 final.
A record 128 players have entered this year's competition, an increase of 32 from last year's extravaganza - including a record five players from the Women's Series.
Littler is one of nine previous winners to be playing in this year's competition, and will begin his defence on the opening night against Darius Labanauskas.
When does the World Darts Championship start?
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Luke Littler became the youngest darts world champion, aged 17, in January after victory over Michael van Gerwen [Getty Images]
The 2026 World Darts Championship gets under way on Thursday, 11 December with an evening session consisting of four first round matches.
After that, every day will feature an afternoon and evening session with four matches in each.
There is a three-day Christmas break from 24 to 26 December. After that point, there will be two sessions of play each day, but the matches in each session decrease in later rounds where there are fewer, but longer, matches.
The last day of two sessions is Thursday, 1 January 2026. After that, both semi-finals will be played on Friday, 2 January in an evening session.
The final takes place on Saturday, 3 January in the evening.
What is the draw and seedings?
The top 32 ranked players were seeded for the tournament. Unlike recent years, the top 32 will enter in the first round, instead of the second.
Seeded players denoted in brackets
First round
First quarter
- Luke Littler (1) v Darius Labanauskas
- Mario Vandenbogaerde v David Davies
- Joe Cullen (32) v Bradley Brooks
- Mensur Suljovic v David Cameron
- Damon Heta (16) v Steve Lennon
- Raymond van Barneveld v Stefan Bellmont
- Rob Cross (17) v Cor Dekker
- Ian White v Mervyn King
- Chris Dobey (8) v Xiaochen Zong
- Andrew Gilding v Cam Crabtree
- Luke Woodhouse (25) v Boris Krcmar
- Martin Lukeman v Max Hopp
- Gerwyn Price (9) v Adam Gawlas
- Lukas Wenig v Wesley Plaisier
- Ryan Joyce v Owen Bates
- Krzysztof Ratajski v Alexis Toylo
Second quarter
- Stephen Bunting (4) v Sebastian Bialecki
- Richard Veenstra v Nitin Kumar
- Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) v Andy Baetens
- James Hurrell v Stowe Buntz
- Martin Schindler (13) v Stephen Burton
- Keane Barry v Tim Pusey
- Ryan Searle (20) v Chris Landman
- Brendan Dolan v Tavis Dudeney
- Jonny Clayton (5) v Adam Lipscombe
- Dom Taylor v Oskar Lukasiak
- Michael Smith (28) v Lisa Ashton
- Niels Zonneveld v Haupai Puha
- Ross Smith (12) v Andres Harrysson
- Thibault Tricole v Motomu Sakai
- Dave Chisnall (21) v Fallon Sherrock
- Ricardo Pietreczko v Jose de Sousa
Third quarter
- Luke Humphries (2) v Ted Evetts
- Jeffrey de Graaf v Paul Lim
- Wessel Nijman (31) v Karel Sedlacek
- Gabriel Clemens v Alex Spellman
- Nathan Aspinall (15) v Lourence Ilagan
- Mickey Mansell v Leonard Gates
- Mike De Decker (18) v David Munyua
- Kevin Doets v Matthew Dennant
- James Wade (7) v Ryusei Azemoto
- Ricky Evans v Man Lok Leung
- Cameron Menzies (26) v Charlie Manby
- Matt Campbell v Adam Sevada
- Gian van Veen (10) v Cristo Reyes
- Alan Soutar v Teemu Harju
- Dimitri Van den Bergh (23) v Darren Beveridge
- Madars Razma v Jamai van den Herik
Fourth quarter
- Michael van Gerwen (3) v Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
- William O'Connor v Krzysztof Kciuk
- Peter Wright (30) v Noa-Lynn van Leuven
- Kim Huybrechts v Arno Merk
- Gary Anderson (14) v Adam Hunt
- Connor Scutt v Simon Whitlock
- Jermaine Wattimena (19) v Dominik Grullich
- Scott Williams v Paolo Nebrida
- Danny Noppert (6) v Jurjen van der Velde
- Nick Kenny v Justin Hood
- Ritchie Edhouse (27) v Jonny Tata
- Ryan Meikle v Jesus Salate
- Josh Rock (11) v Gemma Hayter
- Niko Springer v Joe Comito
- Daryl Gurney (22) v Beau Greaves
- Callan Rydz v Patrik Kovacs
What is the prize money?
A record-breaking £5m prize pool will be on offer at the tournament, with £1m going to the winner.
There will also be a £60,000 bonus to any player who achieves a nine-darter.
- Winner: £1,000,000
- Runner-up: £400,000
- Semi-final losers: £200,000
- Quarter-final losers: £100,000
- Fourth round losers: £60,000
- Third round losers: £35,000
- Second round losers: £25,000
- First round losers: £15,000
Who is the favourite to win?
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Luke Humphries and Luke Littler have faced each other in the last two Premier League Darts finals and the final of the 2024 World Darts Championship [Getty Images]
Littler, 18, goes into the tournament as favourite off the back of winning six major finals in 2025.
Luke Humphries, Littler's predecessor as both world champion and world number one, faced Littler in three finals this year and is the current world number two.
World number three Van Gerwen is also in the mix, looking to avenge last year's final defeat and add to his three world titles, with his last coming in 2019.
Young players looking for a big run at the World Championship include Josh Rock and Gian van Veen, whose respective form has seen them both enter the world's top 12.
Beau Greaves topped the Women's Series and faces Daryl Gurney first as she looks to become the only female player after fellow qualifier Fallon Sherrock - who won twice at the 2019 event - to triumph at the tournament.
What is the format?
The format is set play, unlike other tournaments which are a race to a number of legs.
A set consist of a best of five legs or race to three.
Only in matches where players are level on sets and legs in the deciding set do players need to win by two clear legs.
- First and second round: Best of five sets
- Third and fourth round: Best of seven sets
- Quarter-finals: Best of nine sets
- Semi-finals: Best of 11 sets
- Final: Best of 13 sets
Who are the previous champions?
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Phil Taylor, a 14-time world champion, retired from PDC events in 2018 [Getty Images]
Phil Taylor is the most successful player in World Darts Championship history, winning 14 PDC world titles between 1995 and 2013.
The last five years has produced five different world champions, with English trio Littler, Humphries and Michael Smith winning the last three.
Littler and Humphries will hope to join the exclusive club of players to have won multiple world titles, with only six managing to achieve that feat so far.
- 2025: Luke Littler
- 2024: Luke Humphries
- 2023: Michael Smith
- 2022: Peter Wright
- 2021: Gerwyn Price
- 2020: Peter Wright
- 2019: Michael van Gerwen
- 2018: Rob Cross
- 2017: Michael van Gerwen
- 2016: Gary Anderson
- 2015: Gary Anderson
- 2014: Michael van Gerwen
- 2013: Phil Taylor
- 2012: Adrian Lewis
- 2011: Adrian Lewis
- 2010: Phil Taylor
- 2009: Phil Taylor
- 2008: John Part
- 2007: Raymond van Barneveld
- 2006: Phil Taylor
- 2005: Phil Taylor
- 2004: Phil Taylor
- 2003: John Part
- 2002: Phil Taylor
- 2001: Phil Taylor
- 2000: Phil Taylor
- 1999: Phil Taylor
- 1998: Phil Taylor
- 1997: Phil Taylor
- 1996: Phil Taylor
- 1995: Phil Taylor
- 1994: Dennis Priestley
How many nine-darters were scored last year?
Two players hit nine-darters during the 2025 World Darts Championship.
Dutchman Cristian Kist was the first player to hit one, doing so in a first-round defeat to Madars Razma.
Australia's Damon Heta also hit one in the third round, but like Kist suffered defeat in that match to Luke Woodhouse.
How to follow on the BBC
Throughout the tournament, there will be daily round-ups on the BBC Sport website and app.
There will also be live text coverage of the biggest matches as the tournament progresses.
During Thursday's opening night, there will be a dedicated show on BBC Radio 5 Live starting at 19:30 GMT, featuring interviews with Littler, Humphries and Van Gerwen. Presenter James Gregg will provide updates on BBC Sounds throughout the competition.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
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