PDC World Championship 2025

The 32nd edition of the PDC World Darts Championship was held from 13 December to 3 January at Alexandra Palace in London. This year, 95 players had a shot at the world title. 17-year-old Luke Littler managed to win his first world title after beating Michael van Gerwen in the final.

For Littler, the tournament starts in the second round. ‘The Nuke’ is seeded fourth after a strong first year on the ProTour and is one of the top favourites for the title. In his first match, he will face Ryan Meikle, who is just too strong for Fallon Sherrock in the first round (3-2). Littler has a difficult start against a well playing Meikle, but wins the match with 3-1 in sets and an average of just over a hundred. He also makes history by winning the last set with 3-0 in 11, 10 and 11 darts: a set average of over 140!

In the last 32, Littler will face the experienced Ian White. ‘The Diamond’ won a round earlier against European champion Ritchie Edhouse and also plays a creditable match against Littler. In terms of averages, they are not far apart, but in terms of score they are: 4-1 for Littler and a place in the last sixteen for ‘The Nuke’. Will he get his first serious test there? Yes, because he will be up against a Ryan Joyce who is in good form. Littler will have to play at his best to reach the quarter-finals and he succeeds: with an average of 103.14, he beats Joyce 4-3 and goes again to the quarter-finals.

On Wednesday 1 January, Littler will then face Nathan Aspinall. ‘The Asp’ has had a difficult year, but still manages to reach the quarter-finals with mediocre play (as his opponents were a notch worse). Aspinall shows plenty of nice things against Littler, but it will not get him past last year's losing finalist. Littler again records an average of over a hundred and beats his compatriot 5-2. The highest average of this tournament throws ‘The Nuke’ in his semi-final match against Stephen Bunting: ‘The Bullet’ plays a very strong tournament, but is outclassed by Littler from the start of the match. Bunting’s average is over a hundred, but Littler takes it a step further with an average of over 105. It eventually becomes 6-1 for Littler, who at the age of seventeen can prepare for his second World Championship final in a row.

In that final he will meet Michael van Gerwen. The Dutchman is on the ‘favourable’ side of the schedule in advance and knows how to live up to his role as favourite. He first beats James Hurrell 3-0, then he has more than a hard time with Brendan Dolan (4-2) and beats Jeffrey de Graaf with the same numbers. In the quarter finals, Van Gerwen really struggles with Callan Rydz, but he can be relieved that Rydz misses several set darts to win several sets. Both men throw an average of 103, but it is Van Gerwen who wins 5-3. In the semi-finals, he meets Chris Dobey, who after a good year manages to reach a big semi-final at the World Championship. However, ‘Hollywood’ can’t play his best game and sees Van Gerwen triumph 6-1.

A final between numbers 3 and 4 of the seeding list. What happened to numbers 1 and 2? Title holder Luke Humphries is again the top favorite for the world title this year, but he loses in the last sixteen to a revived Peter Wright. The two-time world champion had a bad 2024, but shows old-fashioned good things at the World Championship. He beats Humphries 4-1, but loses 5-2 to Bunting in the quarter finals. Second-seeded Michael Smith (the 2023 world champion) is having a dramatic World Championship: he does not get past the second round, thanks to a tie-break defeat against Kevin Doets, the man he managed to beat twelve months earlier. Other surprises in the second round were the eliminations of Raymond van Barneveld, James Wade, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Mike de Decker, Danny Noppert, Rob Cross, Gian van Veen, Wessel Nijman, Gary Anderson, Ross Smith and Dave Chisnall.

The final between Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen is a dream match. However, it never becomes a really exciting battle: Littler is a lot stronger than the Dutchman in the initial phase and takes a 4-0 lead in sets within half an hour. From that moment on, Van Gerwen gets into the match a bit better, but the final is no longer really exciting. Littler eventually wins 7-3 in sets and can call himself the youngest world champion ever: after a lost final in 2024, he is the winner of the 2025 edition.

Some other notable things that stood out during the World Championship: two nine-darters were thrown: in the first round by Christian Kist and in the third round by Damon Heta. Both men received a cheque for 60 thousand pounds, but lost in the same match. The most beautiful finish of the tournament was thrown by Joe Cullen: after surviving two match darts against Gerwyn Price in the last 32, ‘The Rockstar’ threw a beautiful 170 finish to stay in the match. One leg later, it was Price who managed to win the deciding set 6-5. For Sandro Eric Sosing, it will be a tournament to forget quickly: he has to give up just before his first round match against Ian White due to medical reasons.

PDC World Championship

About PDC World Championship 2025

Competitors Of PDC World Championship 2025

Luke Littler

Luke Humphries

Michael Smith

Michael van Gerwen

Rob Cross

Dave Chisnall

Jonny Clayton

Stephen Bunting

Damon Heta

Gerwyn Price

Dimitri Van den Bergh

Nathan Aspinall

Danny Noppert

Gary Anderson

Chris Dobey

James Wade

Peter Wright

Josh Rock

Ross Smith

Ryan Searle

Andrew Gilding

Martin Schindler

Joe Cullen

Mike De Decker

Dirk van Duijvenbode

Daryl Gurney

Gabriel Clemens

Gian van Veen

Ritchie Edhouse

Brendan Dolan

Krzysztof Ratajski

Raymond van Barneveld

Ryusei Azemoto

Keane Barry

Stefan Bellmont

Stowe Buntz

Stephen Burton

Matt Campbell

Cameron Carolissen

Joe Comito

Kevin Doets

Ricky Evans

Leonard Gates

Tomoya Goto

Kai Gotthardt

Romeo Grbavac

Rhys Griffin

Florian Hempel

James Hurrell

Kim Huybrechts

Lourence Ilagan

Ryan Joyce

Nick Kenny

Christian Kist

Nitin Kumar

Darius Labanauskas

Chris Landman

Lok-Yin Lee

Jim Long

Martin Lukeman

Mickey Mansell

Gordon Mathers

Ryan Meikle

Cameron Menzies

Alexander Merkx

Paolo Nebrida

Wessel Nijman

William O'Connor

Robert Owen

Ricardo Pietreczko

Wesley Plaisier

Madars Razma

Ben Robb

Callan Rydz

Connor Scutt

Karel Sedláček

Fallon Sherrock