Peter Wright opened his title defence with a 3–1 win over Steve West, appearing on stage dressed as The Grinch. Wright's reign was ended in the next round, after Gabriel Clemens won a last leg decider over him. Krzysztof Ratajski made it past Ryan Joyce and Simon Whitlock without dropping a set; before knocking out Clemens with a last leg victory of his own, with both players missing multiple darts to win before Ratajski finally hit double one to take the win and become the first Polish player to make a PDC World Championship quarter-final. Seventh seed James Wade was eliminated in the third round by Stephen Bunting, despite hitting the first perfect Nine-dart finish at the World Championship since Gary Anderson at the 2016 PDC World Darts Championship. Bunting overcame Ryan Searle in the fourth round to qualify for the quarter-finals for the second time. In the quarter-final; Bunting took the first three sets and led 4–1 after the fifth. Ratajski closed the gap to 4–3 over the next two sets but Bunting broke throw in the eighth set to complete the win and qualify for his first PDC World Championship semi-final.