O'Sullivan won the 10th Premier League title of his career, a record number of wins for any tournament in the modern era. After topping the table in the league stage, he defeated Mark Williams to reach the final, where he defeated Ding Junhui 7–1. His next tournament was the UK Championship, where he lost in the second round 5–6 against eventual champion Judd Trump. At the Masters, he again lost against Trump, this time 2–6 in the quarter-finals. At the German Masters, he reached his first ranking final since the 2010 World Open, and won 9–7 against Stephen Maguire, despite having trailed 0–4 against Andrew Higginson in the first round. He then reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Open, and the quarter-finals of the China Open, but lost 2–6 against Mark Selby and 4–5 against Maguire.