Smith entered the 2017 World Championship without a match win since September 2016 having lost 10 in a row. He took the deciding set of his first round match with Ricky Evans without dropping a leg and said he had been fighting his demons recently. In the next round he missed five darts to eliminate Mervyn King 4–1, but kept his composure to eventually see him off 4–3. Smith went 3–1 up on James Wade in the third round, but after Wade took the next set, Smith lost six legs in a row to be eliminated 4–3. He missed two darts to win the third UK Open Qualifier as Peter Wright beat him 6–5. Four 6–5 wins saw him reach the final of the Gibraltar Darts Trophy and at 4–4 he took out a 132 finish with Mensur Suljović waiting on 56 to break throw and took home his first title in nearly two years with a 6–4 victory. Smith qualified for the 2017 European Championship as third seed, losing in the quarter-final to Rob Cross.