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TheWorld Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in thedarts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversialsplit in the game. Each organisation, theBritish Darts Organisation (BDO) and theProfessional Darts Corporation (PDC) then arranged their own World Championships, the former in January the latter in December. As a result, there was no longer a unified world champion in the sport for nearly three decades.
The BDO version dated back to 1978, when it was held at theHeart of the Midlands nightclub,Nottingham. The following year it moved to theJollees Cabaret Club,Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. From then until 2019 it was held at theLakeside Leisure Complex atFrimley Green,Surrey. In 2020 the tournament was held atThe O2 Arena in London. The BDO went into liquidation in 2020 and theWorld Darts Federation announced later that they would be creating their own version of a World Championship, returning to the Lakeside Leisure Complex.[1] Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, their version didn't get underway until2022.[2] Since qualification for the BDO version was always based on WDF rankings, most of the player pool and legacy of this new version of the World Championship is based on the old BDO system.
The PDC version has been running since 1994 after "the split", with a field of players containing all active previous World Champions from the BDO. It was originally staged atPurfleet'sCircus Tavern,Essex, before moving to its current homeAlexandra Palace,London, for the 2008 World Championship.
The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 4 January 2025).
| Player | Total | BDO | PDC |
|---|---|---|---|
 Phil Taylor | 16 | 2 | 14 |
 Raymond van Barneveld | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Eric Bristow | 5 | 5 | – |
| Martin Adams | 3 | 3 | – |
| John Lowe | 3 | 3 | – |
| Michael van Gerwen | 3 | – | 3 |
 John Part | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Glen Durrant | 3 | 3 | – |
 Gary Anderson | 2 | – | 2 |
| Peter Wright | 2 | – | 2 |
| Ted Hankey | 2 | 2 | – |
| Adrian Lewis | 2 | – | 2 |
| Dennis Priestley | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Scott Waites | 2 | 2 | – |
| Jocky Wilson | 2 | 2 | – |
| Bob Anderson | 1 | 1 | – |
| Steve Beaton | 1 | 1 | – |
| Stephen Bunting | 1 | 1 | – |
 Richie Burnett | 1 | 1 | – |
| Rob Cross | 1 | – | 1 |
 Tony David | 1 | 1 | – |
| Keith Deller | 1 | 1 | – |
| Andy Fordham | 1 | 1 | – |
| Christian Kist | 1 | 1 | – |
| Jelle Klaasen | 1 | 1 | – |
| Scott Mitchell | 1 | 1 | – |
| Gerwyn Price | 1 | – | 1 |
| Leighton Rees | 1 | 1 | – |
| Michael Smith | 1 | – | 1 |
| Les Wallace | 1 | 1 | – |
| John Walton | 1 | 1 | – |
| Wayne Warren | 1 | 1 | – |
| Mark Webster | 1 | 1 | – |
| Luke Humphries | 1 | – | 1 |
| Luke Littler | 1 | – | 1 |
The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 20 February 2024).
| Player | Total | BDO | PDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 47 | 28 | 19 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 6 | 4 |
| Scotland | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| Wales | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Canada | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Australia | 1 | 1 | – |
| Average | Seed | Player | Score | Opponent | Stage | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97.49 | 3 | Leighton Rees | 6–3 | Alan Evans | QF | 1978 |
| 99.00 | 5 | John Lowe | 2–0 | Tony Brown | 1st | 1984 |
| 100.29 | unseeded | Keith Deller | 2–4 | John Lowe | QF | 1985 |
| 100.80 | unseeded | Phil Taylor | 5–0 | Cliff Lazarenko | SF | 1990 |
| 102.63 | 1 | Dennis Priestley | 3–0 | Jocky Wilson | 1st | 1993 |
| 103.98 | 1 | Phil Taylor | 6–0 | Dennis Priestley | F | 1998 |
| 105.03 | 3 | Phil Taylor | 3–0 | Reg Harding | 1st | 1999 |
| 105.87 | 2 | Phil Taylor | 6–0 | Alan Warriner | QF | 2000 |
| 107.46 | 2 | Phil Taylor | 7–0 | John Part | F | 2001 |
| 111.21 | 2 | Phil Taylor | 6–1 | Shayne Burgess | 2nd | 2002 |
| 114.05 | 1 | Michael van Gerwen | 6–2 | Raymond van Barneveld | SF | 2017 |
World Darts Federation (formerlyBritish Darts Organisation) Main articles:BDO World Darts Championship andWDF World Darts Championship
| Professional Darts Corporation Main article:PDC World Championship
|
The following sortable table lists all winners of all versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 December 2023).
| Player | Total | WDF (BDO) | PDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trina Gulliver | 10 | 10 | – |
| Lisa Ashton | 4 | 4 | – |
 Anastasia Dobromyslova | 3 | 3 | – |
| Beau Greaves | 3 | 3 | – |
 Mikuru Suzuki | 2 | 2 | – |
| Francis Hoenselaar | 1 | 1 | – |
 Stacy Bromberg | 1 | – | 1 |
The following sortable table lists all winners of all versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 December 2023).
| Player | Total | WDF (BDO) | PDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 17 | 17 | – |
| Russia | 3 | 3 | – |
| Japan | 2 | 2 | – |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1 | – |
| United States | 1 | – | 1 |
The British Darts Organisation scores are sets, while the Professional Darts Corporation scores are legs.
British Darts Organisation
| Professional Darts Corporation (current sponsors: Winmau)
|
