Luke Littler goes into the 2026/27 Paddy Power World Darts Championship as the two-time defending champion, chasing a hat-trick of titles at Alexandra Palace. The tournament starts on Friday 11 December 2026 and finishes on Sunday 3 January 2027, with a £5 million prize fund and £1 million for the winner.
The big change this year is the venue. For the first time the event moves into the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace, which holds more than 5,200 spectators, up from 3,200 in the West Hall. The final falls on a Sunday, and ticket availability rises to a record 180,000.
Dates and Schedule
The first round begins on Friday 11 December. Alexandra Palace has hosted the tournament since 2007.
Play follows the usual pattern. The opening night is a single evening session, then afternoon and evening sessions run from the second day through to the quarter-finals. There is a Christmas break from 24 to 27 December, and the tournament finishes after New Year with the final on Sunday 3 January 2027. Start times for each session are published by the PDC closer to the event, so check pdc.tv for the exact order of play.
The Field and Qualification
The field is 128 players, and every one of them, including the 32 seeds, starts in the first round. Qualification works in three strands:
- 40 places go to the top 40 in the two-year PDC Order of Merit, taken after the 2026 Players Championship Finals.
- 40 places go to the next 40 highest-ranked players on the one-year Pro Tour Order of Merit.
- 48 places go to international qualifiers, including a pair of guaranteed places for Africa for the first time.
The international group also covers the youth and women’s routes. The reigning PDC World Youth Champion and the top three finishers on both the Development Tour and the Challenge Tour qualify, and so do the Women’s World Matchplay winner and the top finishers on the Women’s Series.
The seedings are not locked until the Order of Merit closes, which one ranking tracker puts at 29 November 2026 (an unofficial figure), so everything below is provisional and the European Championship and Players Championship Finals can still shuffle it. The full draw is made once the field is complete, expected in late November, and this page will be updated with the first-round matches as soon as it is announced.
Provisional Seedings
The top 32 in the PDC Order of Merit are seeded. This is how the top 16 stood on 18 October 2026, measured in prize money earned over the two-year ranking period.
| Seed | Player | Prize money |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Littler | £3,113,500 |
| 2 | Luke Humphries | £1,062,500 |
| 3 | Gian van Veen | £1,045,750 |
| 4 | Gerwyn Price | £787,000 |
| 5 | Jonny Clayton | £706,000 |
| 6 | James Wade | £681,250 |
| 7 | Danny Noppert | £623,500 |
| 8 | Josh Rock | £606,500 |
| 9 | Gary Anderson | £591,750 |
| 10 | Michael van Gerwen | £587,500 |
| 11 | Nathan Aspinall | £584,500 |
| 12 | Wessel Nijman | £577,500 |
| 13 | Stephen Bunting | £576,250 |
| 14 | Ross Smith | £572,250 |
| 15 | Ryan Searle | £570,250 |
| 16 | Jermaine Wattimena | £543,750 |
Littler is more than £2 million clear, so the top seed is not in doubt. The real fight is lower down. Humphries and Van Veen are separated by under £17,000 for second, and places 9 to 16 are covered by roughly £48,000, which is a single decent Players Championship run. Van Gerwen has slipped to tenth and is only £3,000 ahead of Aspinall, so a top-ten seed is no longer a given for the three-time champion.
Seeding still decides how kind the draw is. The 32nd seed could in theory meet the top seed as early as round three.
The Format
Matches are played in sets, with each set decided as a best of five legs.
| Round | Format |
|---|---|
| First and second rounds | Best of 5 sets (first to 3) |
| Third and fourth rounds | Best of 7 sets (first to 4) |
| Quarter-finals | Best of 9 sets (first to 5) |
| Semi-finals | Best of 11 sets (first to 6) |
| Final | Best of 13 sets (first to 7) |
The deciding set has to be won by two clear legs. If it reaches 5-5, a sudden-death leg decides the match. Until then a one-leg lead is not enough, so a deciding set at 4-4 carries on, and only at 5-5 does the next leg win it outright.
Prize Money
The total prize fund is £5,000,000, the same as last year, when Littler became the first winner to collect £1,000,000.
| Stage | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | £1,000,000 |
| Runner-up | £400,000 |
| Semi-finalists (2) | £200,000 |
| Quarter-finalists (4) | £100,000 |
| Fourth round (8) | £60,000 |
| Third round (16) | £35,000 |
| Second round (32) | £25,000 |
| First round (64) | £15,000 |
| Total | £5,000,000 |
The money counts towards the Order of Merit.
How to Watch
In the UK and Ireland, Sky Sports shows the tournament live, and it can also be streamed through NOW. Outside the UK and Ireland, the PDC’s own streaming service, PDCTV, carries the coverage. Last year’s list of local broadcasters included Viaplay in the Netherlands, DAZN in Germany and Fox Sports in Australia, so check what your country has confirmed for this edition.
Tickets were allocated through a two-stage ballot in September, with a priority window for PDCTV annual members. The ballot has closed, and any remaining availability is listed at pdc.tv/tickets.
The Defending Champion
Littler beat Gian van Veen 7-1 in the January 2026 final to win his second world title in as many years. He has since added the World Masters, UK Open, World Cup, World Matchplay and Premier League titles in 2026.
He was only the fourth player to win back-to-back world titles, after Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson, and the first since Anderson in 2016. His only defeat at Alexandra Palace so far is the 2024 final against Luke Humphries.
The Women’s Players
There is no separate women’s draw at the Worlds. Women qualify into the same 128-player field through the Women’s World Matchplay and the Women’s Series Order of Merit. Beau Greaves won the 2026 Women’s World Matchplay but qualifies through the Pro Tour rankings instead, which frees up an extra place on the Women’s Series list. Lisa Ashton, Fallon Sherrock, Gemma Hayter and Vicky Pruim have secured their places through that series.