WDF World Darts Championship

The WDF World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts and is organised by the World Darts Federation. The WDF World Darts Championship began in 2022 after the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in 2020.

History
The original World Darts Championship ran from 1978 to 2020 and was organised by the British Darts Organisation. The  tournament was the last edition to be organised by the BDO before the collapse of the company. In September 2020, World Darts Federation announced the launch of the new WDF World Championship. The first edition took place in , but was delayed until April due to concerns and government restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023 the tournament started in December. From 2024 onwards the tournament started in November and ended in December. In July 2025, the WDF announced that for all tournaments, cups and ranking tables, the "men's" and "boys" categories were renamed to "open" and "youth" following a change in the WDF's eligibility criteria that saw participation in women's and girls' events restricted to those born as female.

Venue
The first World Darts Championship organised by the BDO was played at the  in Nottingham in 1978. Between 1979 and 1985 the tournanment was held at  in Stoke-on-Trent. From 1986 to 2019 the tournament was held at the  in , Surrey. The last tournament organised by the BDO was played at the  in London. Since 2022, the WDF World Darts Championship has been held at the Lakeside Country Club.

List of tournaments
Open (Men's)
In   became the first player from Northern Ireland and  the first player from France to reach the final of a World Darts Championship, Neil Duff won the first men's title. In   became the first player from Belgium to win the men's title, he defeated  6–1 in the final. In   won the men's title to become the first World Darts Champion from the Republic of Ireland, he defeated  in the final 6–3. Lim also became the oldest darts player to reach a World Championship final at 70 years old. In , , who qualified for both the open and youth tournaments, became the youngest player to compete in a senior WDF World Championship at 15 years old, beating the record previously held by Luke Littler. He reached the final of the open tournament, becoming the youngest finalist in either WDF/BDO or PDC World Darts Championship and first teenager to reach WDF final, losing to  in the final.
 Year Champion  Score Runner-Up   Prize Money Venue Ref. Total      87.73 6–5   86.95 £200,000 £50,000 £25,000 , , Surrey     93.69 6–1   86.47 £170,000 £50,000 £20,000     90.31 6–3    83.76 £146,000 £50,000 £16,000     93.21 6–3   93.18 £146,000 £50,000 £16,000 

Women's
In   became the youngest ever winner of a world championship at 18 years old, defeating Kirsty Hutchinson in the final 4–0, and produced an average of 92.05. She went on to defend her title in the next two editions, beating  and Sophie McKinlay in 2023 and 2024. In ,  beat Lerena Rietbergen 4–1 to win her first world title and become the oldest world champion in darts history.
 Year Champion  Score Runner-Up   Prize Money Venue Ref. Total      92.05 4–0   72.53 £87,500 £25,000 £12,500 , , Surrey    84.64 4–1   77.69 £75,000 £25,000 £10,000    83.92 4–1  Sophie McKinlay 73.81 £63,000 £25,000 £8,000     72.01 4–1  Lerena Rietbergen 70.07 £63,000 £25,000 £8,000 

Youth (Boys')
 Year Champion  Score Runner-Up   Prize Money Venue Ref. Total     Bradly Roes 71.34 3–1  Charlie Large 71.56 £9,500 £5,000 £2,500 , , Surrey     Bradley van der Velden 69.93 3–0  Adam Dee 66.68 £9,000 £5,000 £2,000    Archie Self 81.34 3–2   Jenson Walker 84.76 £8,500 £3,000 £1,500     89.35 4–2  Florian Preis 88.45 £8,500 £3,000 £1,500 

Girls'
 Year Champion  Score Runner-Up   Prize Money Venue Ref. Total     Eleanor Cairns 52.45 2–0  Wibke Riemann 52.22 £3,000 £2,000 £1,000 , , Surrey     59.43 2–0  Krisztina Turai 51.07 £3,000 £2,000 £1,000    Paige Pauling 73.88 2–0   Sophie McKinlay 71.92 £2,500 £1,500 £1,000    Zehra Gemi 77.07 3–0  Rebecca Allen 65.54 £3,500 £1,500 £1,000 

Statistics
Finalists
 List of Men's (Open) World Championship finalists. Player Winners Runners-up Last final won Last final lost   1 0     1 0     1 0     1 0     0 1     0 1     0 1     0 1  

 List of Women's World Championship finalists. Player Winners Runners-up Last final won Last final lost   3 0     1 0     0 1     0 1    Sophie McKinlay 0 1    Lerena Rietbergen 0 1  

 List of Boys (Youth) World Championship finalists. Player Winners Runners-up Last final won Last final lost  Bradly Roes 1 0    Bradley van der Velden 1 0    Archie Self 1 0     1 0    Charlie Large 0 1    Adam Dee  0 1    Jenson Walker 0 1    Florian Preis 0 1  

 List of Girls World Championship finalists. Player Winners Runners-up Last final won Last final lost  Eleanor Cairns 1 0     1 0    Paige Pauling 1 0    Zehra Gemi 1 0    Wibke Riemann 0 1    Krisztina Turai 0 1    Sophie McKinlay 0 1    Rebecca Allen 0 1  

Averages
 Ten highest Men's (Open) World Championship one-match averages Average Player Year & Round Opponent Result 104.91     , Third round   Luke Littler  3–0 102.79    , Third round   Scott Marsh  3–0 101.32   Jim McEwan  , First round   Landon Gardiner  2–0 98.98     , Second round   Björn Lejon  3–0 97.47     , Third round     3–0 97.44     , Quarter-final     4–1 97.36    , Quarter-final    4–1 97.21      , Second round   Jason Brandon 3–0 96.33    , Semi-final   Jenson Walker  5–2 96.29    , Second round    3–1

 Ten highest Women's World Championship one-match averages Average Player Year & Round Opponent Result 92.05     , Final     4–0 90.77     , Semi-final     3–0 89.21     , Quarter-final     2–0 88.79     , Second round     2–0 88.41     , Quarter-final   Paula Murphy  2–0  86.16     , Semi-final     3–0 85.89     , First round     2–0 85.84     , Quarter-final     2–0 84.64     , Final     4–1 84.06     , Semi-final    3–0

Television coverage
 Period Rights holder Ref. 2022 Eurosport, ,   2023 Ayozat, WDF YouTube, Winmau YouTube, Tungsten Tales YouTube  2024  (Semi-finals and Final), GREAT! game YouTube  2025 S4C (Online, YouTube & TV) 

References

External links


Category:Darts