2024 PDC World Darts Championship
The 2024 PDC World Darts Championship was a professional darts event that took place at Alexandra Palace in London, England, from 15 December 2023 to 3 January 2024. It was the thirty-first World Darts Championship to be organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.
Michael Smith was the defending champion, having defeated Michael van Gerwen 7–4 in the 2023 final. Smith lost 4–0 to Chris Dobey in the fourth round. For the first time since the 2006 event, all four semi-finalists were English. For the first time since the 2010 event, two unseeded players reached the final four.
The third seed Luke Humphries won his first World Championship title, defeating 16-year-old debutant Luke Littler 7–4 in the final. He also became world number 1 for the first time in his career. The event sponsor pledged to donate £1,000 to the charity Prostate Cancer UK for every 180 scored during the tournament. The tournament set a new record for the most 180s achieved, raising £914,000 for the charity, which was ultimately rounded to £1,000,000. Humphries scored the most 180s at the event, winning the inaugural Ballon d'Art trophy for the achievement.
Steve Beaton made a record-extending 33rd consecutive and final World Championship appearance, but lost in the second round to Daryl Gurney. After 28 years with the PDC, referee Russ Bray retired at the end of the tournament after officiating his last televised ranking match in the world final.
Overview
The 2024 PDC World Darts Championship was the 31st World Darts Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and the 17th to be held at Alexandra Palace, London. It took place from 15 December 2023 to 3 January 2024 as the culminating event of the 2023 Professional Darts Corporation season. The championship featured 96 players, with the top 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit seeded through to the second round. Players ranked 33rd to 64th on the Order of Merit, and 32 other players from various qualifiers, started in the first round.Following the withdrawal of previous title sponsor Cazoo in July 2023, bookmaker Paddy Power agreed a three-year deal to sponsor the event. As part of its promotion of the event, Paddy Power announced that the triple 20 would be changed from its traditional red to green, although this would later be revealed to be a hoax to raise awareness of the Big 180 campaign, for which the bookmaker would donate £1,000 to charity Prostate Cancer UK for every maximum score of 180 achieved during the tournament. Additionally, the Irish betting provider inaugurated the Ballon d'Art for the player who achieved the most maximum scores throughout the event.
Going into the event, Luke Humphries was viewed by players and bookmakers as the tournament favourite, having won three majors since October—the World Grand Prix, the Grand Slam of Darts, and the Players Championship Finals. Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle backed Humphries to win the event, describing him as "the best player on the planet", while former player Paul Nicholson described him as "a world number one in waiting".
Defending champion Michael Smith was seen as unlikely to defend his title after a disappointing season, especially since he changed his darts supplier during the summer. Smith himself acknowledged he was a likely target for players to up their game and eliminate him. Going into the event, Smith began practicing with Nathan Aspinall in an effort to rectify his lack of practice throughout the year, which he attributed to a busier lifestyle following his championship win.
Format
All matches were played as straight in, double out, 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 were 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.
| Round | Best of | First to |
| First & Second | 5 | 3 |
| Third & Fourth | 7 | 4 |
| Quarter-finals | 9 | 5 |
| Semi-finals | 11 | 6 |
| Final | 13 | 7 |
Ranking
Rankings in the PDC Order of Merit are calculated on a two-year basis. Most of the players were defending their PDC Order of Merit prize money from the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship. At the end of the tournament, the PDC Order of Merit prize money from that event was deleted from their rankings. After the tournament, the top 64 in the PDC Order of Merit received a one-year extension on their tour card. The players in the final year of their tour card who finished the tournament outside the top 64 lost their tour card, unless players inside the top 64 resigned their tour card.Prize money
The total prize pool for the tournament remained at £2.5 million in total for the sixth year in a row.Qualification
Seeding
The previous year's winner Michael Smith was top of the two-year PDC Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament. Michael van Gerwen, the three-time World Champion from 2014, 2017 and 2019, was the second seed, having won two major titles in 2023, the Premier League and the World Series of Darts Finals. Luke Humphries, winner of three of the last four ranked premier events in 2023, the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam and the Players Championship Finals, was the third seed. The 2022 world champion Peter Wright, who was also champion in 2020 and won the 2023 European Championship, was the fourth seed. As well as Smith, van Gerwen and Wright, four other previous PDC world champions qualified as seeds: 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price was the 5th seed, 2018 world champion Rob Cross was the 8th seed, 2015 and 2016 world champion Gary Anderson was seeded 21st, and 2007 world champion Raymond van Barneveld was seeded 29th. 2014 BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting qualified as 18th seed. He was one of two former BDO champions to qualify as seeds, alongside four-time BDO champion van Barneveld.The top seeds behind Smith, van Gerwen, Humphries, Wright and Price were 2023 World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall, 2022 UK Open champion Danny Noppert, Rob Cross, and Jonny Clayton, who, alongside Gerwyn Price, won the 2023 PDC World Cup of Darts. Other 2023 major event champions to qualify as seeds were Masters champion Chris Dobey at 17th, with 2023 UK Open winner Andrew Gilding three places below him at 20th.
Pro Tour qualification
, the winner of the 2023 German Darts Championship, was the highest-ranked non-seed on the 2023 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit in his first World Championship participation. Gian van Veen, the 2023 World Youth runner up and a European Championship semi-finalist, and 2023 ProTour event winners Ryan Joyce and Radek Szagański were also amongst the qualifiers.As well as Pietreczko, Van Veen and Szagański, other players qualifying for their PDC World Championship debuts were Mario Vandenbogaerde, Richard Veenstra, Kevin Doets, Connor Scutt, Dylan Slevin, Lee Evans, Jules van Dongen. Other players qualifying via the Pro Tour included 2010 runner-up Simon Whitlock, 1996 BDO champion Steve Beaton, and the 2012 BDO champion Christian Kist. Beaton qualified for a record-extending 33rd consecutive World Championship appearance.
International qualifiers
The final group of 32 qualifiers were determined by a series of international qualifiers and secondary tours. The PDC Asian Tour was held for the first time since 2019, and provided qualifiers for both the World Championship and the Asian Championship; the Professional Darts Japan qualifier was replaced with a place via the Asian Championship being reserved for a Japanese player. The Ukrainian qualifier that had been held for the first time in qualification for the previous year was discontinued, and the South West and West Europe qualifiers were combined.Luke Littler, the 2023 World Youth Champion, and Wessel Nijman qualified from the 2023 PDC Development Tour series. Fallon Sherrock, the only woman to have previously won a match at the PDC World Darts Championship, and two-time BDO Women's World Champion Mikuru Suzuki qualified via the 2023 PDC Women's Series. In a rule change, the PDC announced that no player was eligible to compete in the 2024 PDC World Championship had they played at the 2023 WDF World Darts Championship which concluded a week earlier. Beau Greaves, the winner of the 2023 Women's World Matchplay, chose not to compete in the PDC Championship for which she had qualified, instead opting for the WDF. Prakash Jiwa, the winner of the Indian Qualifier, was suspended by the Darts Regulation Authority on 16 November 2023 while an investigation is conducted into suspicious betting in the independent Modus Super Series. Jiwa was replaced by the runner-up of the Indian Qualifier, Bhav Patel on 25 November 2023. The final four places were awarded by a qualifier for non-qualified PDC Tour Card holders.
Debutants via the international and invitation qualifiers were Simon Adams, Owen Bates, Stowe Buntz, Tomoya Goto, Man Lok Leung, Luke Littler, Wessel Nijman, Sandro Eric Sosing, Bhav Patel, Berry van Peer, Darren Penhall, Reynaldo Rivera, Alex Spellman and Thibault Tricole; Tricole was the first ever player from France to qualify for a PDC World Championship.
List of qualifiers
Order of MeritSecond round
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Pro Tour Order of Merit
First round
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First round
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