The 2013 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship was the 20th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event  took place at the Alexandra Palace, London between 14 December 2012 and 1 January 2013.
 Adrian Lewis was the defending champion having won the last two editions of the tournament, but was beaten by Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals, thus ending Lewis' 15 match unbeaten run at the World Championship.
 Two nine-dart finishes were obtained at this year's World Championship; Dean Winstanley achieved the feat in his third round loss to Vincent van der Voort, and Michael van Gerwen threw one in his semi-final victory over James Wade.
 Phil Taylor aged 52 claimed his 16th and last World Championship title with a 7–4 victory over Michael van Gerwen in the final, despite trailing 0–2 and then 2–4 after six sets. Van Gerwen averaged between 105 and 108 in the early sets but as his average dropped, Taylor's average reached 103, winning five successive sets to claim his 16th title over a rival he admitted in the post-match interview was 'hard to crack'.
 With his 2013 PDC World Championship win, Taylor became the first winner of the newly created Sid Waddell Trophy, named after the legendary darts commentator who died of bowel cancer on 11 August 2012.
 The televised stages featured 72 players. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 26 November 2012 were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the 33 events played on the PDC Pro Tour.
 These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Barnsley on 26 November 2012), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Youth Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers to be determined by the PDC and PDPA.
 Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.
 Players were:
 Order of Merit
 Pro Tour
 European Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers
 PDPA QualifiersFirst round qualifier
 Preliminary round qualifier
 PDC Youth Tour QualifierPreliminary round qualifier
 International QualifiersFirst round qualifiers
 Preliminary round qualifiers
  
 The 2013 World Championship featured a prize fund of £1,000,000 – the same as in the previous three years.
 The prize money was allocated as follows:
 The draw for the Round of 64 took place on 4 December 2012, the preliminary round pairings were published on 26 November 2012.
 The winner played his first-round match the same day.
 Source: Match reports in the draw
 This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
 The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels.
 Additionally, the semi-finals and final were broadcast in 3D in the United Kingdom and Ireland.