2017 PDC World Darts Championship
The 2017 William Hill World Darts Championship was the 24th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2016 to 2 January 2017. Phil Taylor made a 28th successive appearance at a World Championship (including the BDO version), equalling the record of John Lowe. For the first time in the history of the World Darts Championship (PDC and BDO), no Englishman progressed to the semi-finals. It was also the first time since 2009 that  the final was contested by the top 2 seeds. Michael van Gerwen set a new record for the highest World Darts Championship 3-dart average (114.05) in his semi-final victory over Raymond van Barneveld, breaking a 15-year record that had been held by Phil Taylor since 2002 (111.21); Van Barneveld himself set a new record for the highest losing 3-dart average (109.34) in the same tie, just 5 days after Cristo Reyes had broken the record in his second round match (106.07), also against Van Gerwen. Van Gerwen won his second World Championship title by defeating two -times defending champion Gary Anderson 7–3 in the final. Format. The field consisted of 72 players, including 16 in a Preliminary Round. Therefore, 64 players were entered into Round 1. The schedule was announced on 15 July 2016. The 72 players consist of: Qualifiers. The draw was made on 28 November live on Sky Sports News. The preliminary round draw was made the previous night. Order of Merit Pro Tour European Pro Tour PDPA Qualifier"First Round Qualifier" "Preliminary Round Qualifiers" International Qualifiers "First Round Qualifiers" "Preliminary Round Qualifiers" Prize money. The prize money was £1,650,000 in total. The winner 's prize money was increased from £300,000 to £350,000. Prize money for a nine-dart finish was originally set at £5,000, but the PDC increased it to £25,000 due to 'the stature of the tournament', though none were thrown. Preliminary round. Best of three sets. Top averages. This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament. <nowiki>*</nowiki> The highest average in the history of the PDC World Championship. <nowiki>**</nowiki> The highest losing average in the history of the PDC World Championship. <nowiki>***</nowiki> The highest losing average in  the final of a PDC World Championship. Representation from different countries. This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round. Twenty-two countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship. Media coverage. The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels: † Sky Sports F1 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.