The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split in the game. Each organisation, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

(PDC) then arranged their own World Championships, the former in January the latter in December. As a result, there was no longer a unified world champion in the sport for nearly three decades. The BDO version dated back to 1978, when it was held at the Heart of the Midlands nightclub,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

. The following year it moved to the Jollees Cabaret Club, Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. From then until 2019 it was held at the

Lakeside Leisure Complex The Lakeside Leisure Complex is a hotel, conferencing, entertainment and associated leisure complex in Frimley Green in west Surrey, England. It hosted the open/men's and women's BDO World Darts Championship every January from 1986 to 2019. Hist ...

Frimley Green Frimley Green is a large village and wards of the United Kingdom, ward of in the borough of Surrey Heath, in Surrey, England. It lies south of the town of Frimley and south-west of central London. Lakeside Leisure Complex, Lakeside Countr ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. In 2020 the tournament was held at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as The O2, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment district on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London, England. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the third-highest seat ...

in London. The BDO went into liquidation in 2020 and the

World Darts Federation The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-poin ...

announced later that they would be creating their own version of a World Championship, returning to the Lakeside Leisure Complex. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, their version didn't get underway until

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. Since qualification for the BDO version was always based on WDF rankings, most of the player pool and legacy of this new version of the World Championship is based on the old BDO system. The PDC version has been running since 1994 after " the split", with a field of players containing all active previous World Champions from the BDO. It was originally staged at

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater ...

Circus Tavern The Circus Tavern is an entertainment venue in Purfleet, Essex, England, that hosts functions, cabaret acts and is also a nightclub venue. First opened in 1974, it is most famous as having been a long-time venue of the PDC World Darts Champi ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, before moving to its current home

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, for the 2008 World Championship.

Men's winners

British Darts Organisation ''Since 2022: WDF World Darts Championship'' Professional Darts Corporation Philtaylor

By player

The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 4 January 2025).

By country

The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 20 February 2024).

Highest average progression

Women's winners

World Darts Federation (formerly British Darts Organisation) Professional Darts Corporation Trina Gulliver on Darts Planet TV

By player

The following sortable table lists all winners of all versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 December 2023).

By country

The following sortable table lists all winners of all versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 December 2023).

Youth winners

The British Darts Organisation scores are sets, while the Professional Darts Corporation scores are legs. British Darts Organisation Professional Darts Corporation (current sponsors: Winmau)

References

{{Main world championships Darts tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 1978