Ding won the 2016 Six-red World Championship, beating Stuart Bingham on the final black in the final by 8–7. Ding won his second Shanghai Masters title, defeating Mark Selby 10–6 in the final. It was the 12th ranking-tournament win of his career and he also became the first player to win the event twice. Ding defeated John Higgins 6–2 and Judd Trump 9–4 to reach the final of the International Championship, where he made a high break of 47 but Mark Selby won the last seven frames to beat him 10–1. In the semi-finals of the 2016 Champion of Champions Ding made four centuries but was beaten 6–5 by Higgins. He lost 6–2 to Jamie Jones in the third round of the UK Championship. In the first round of the Players Championship, Ding recovered from being 4–0 down to Higgins to win 5–4. He then defeated Anthony Hamilton 5–2. Ding was 5–3 up against Marco Fu in the semi-finals but lost the match 6–5.