The 2027 PDC World Darts Championship, branded for sponsorship purposes the "2026/27 Paddy Power World Darts Championship", runs from Thursday 11 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 at Alexandra Palace in London. It is the 34th edition of the tournament and the 20th held at Alexandra Palace, but the first to be staged in the venue's Great Hall rather than the West Hall used for the previous nineteen years.
This guide covers what the PDC has confirmed so far: dates, format, qualifiers already known, prize money, tickets and broadcasting. A few things (the full draw, the session-by-session schedule and the 2026/27 TV rights) are not published yet; we say so explicitly rather than guessing a number.
2027 World Darts Championship: dates and venue
Like every winter edition, the tournament spans two calendar years but is officially named by the PDC after the year of the final, the 2027 edition. Many searches still use "2026" out of habit; it is the same tournament.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| First day | Thursday 11 December 2026 |
| Final | Sunday 3 January 2027 |
| Venue | Alexandra Palace, London (Great Hall) |
| Announced capacity | 180,000 tickets across 36 sessions |
| Venue first | First World Championship held in the Great Hall, after 19 years in the West Hall |
2027 format: 128 players, sets all the way to the final
The format introduced in 2026 carries over unchanged: all 128 players, including the 32 seeds, enter in round one: there is no preliminary round and no seed gets a bye. Matches are played in sets, with the number of sets needed to win increasing round by round.
| Round | Best of (sets) | First to |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 & 2 | 5 | 3 sets |
| Round 3 & 4 | 7 | 4 sets |
| Quarter-finals | 9 | 5 sets |
| Semi-finals | 11 | 6 sets |
| Final | 13 | 7 sets |
In a deciding set tied at 2-2, the first player to lead by two legs wins the set and the match; at 5-5, a sudden-death leg decides it.
The round calendar inherited from the 2026 edition gives a good sense of how 2027 should unfold: opening night on 11 December, rounds 1 and 2 running to 23 December, a Christmas break from 24 to 26 December, rounds 3 and 4 from 27 to 30 December, then the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final across the first three days of January. The PDC has not yet published the session-by-session schedule or match order for 2027; this section will be updated once it is released.
Who has already qualified for the 2027 World Championship?
The 128-player field is split into three blocks: the top 40 in the two-year PDC World Rankings (as of after the 2026 Players Championship Finals), the next 40 in the one-year PDC Pro Tour ranking, and 48 places through international qualifiers. New for this edition: Africa gets two guaranteed places for the first time (a Northern Africa and a Southern Africa qualifier), and a new Trans-Tasman Championship opens a fourth qualification route for Oceania.
Several qualifiers are already confirmed: David Munyua (Kenya) via the Northern Africa qualifier, Paolo Nebrida (Philippines) and Kam Weng Cheng (Macau) via the PDC Asian Championship, Ryuta Arihara (Japan) via the PDC Asian Tour, Brody Klinge (Australia) via the ADA Tour, Ben Robb (New Zealand) via the DPNZ Pro Tour, Mal Cuming (Australia) via the brand-new Trans-Tasman Championship, and Beau Greaves (England), already assured of a place via the PDC Pro Tour after winning the Women's World Matchplay. Several continental qualifiers (Netherlands & Belgium, Mediterranean, South-East Europe, Nordic & Baltic, North America/Canada) were still ongoing as of mid-September 2026.
To follow the qualification race, our dedicated French-language coverage (English summaries to follow as the field fills out): the 2026 qualification route explained, the international race and the pressure on Van Gerwen and Van Barneveld and the Asia-Australia qualifiers.
Draw and schedule
The PDC has not published the full draw or seeding for the 2027 edition yet; that announcement traditionally comes after the last international qualifiers close, in November. The draw and live results will be tracked on the PDC World Championship hub page once the tournament opens.
TV and streaming for the 2027 World Darts Championship
The PDC has not yet announced the international broadcast rights for the 2026/27 edition. For reference, the most recent edition (2026) was shown in the UK and Ireland by Sky Sports (the first event of a new five-year Sky Sports deal with the PDC), in France by L'Équipe, in Belgium by VTM (a Flemish-language channel; no French-language Belgian broadcaster was listed for that edition) and in Switzerland, Germany and Austria by DAZN. The PDCTV streaming service covered subscribers outside the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sky Sports's deal runs for five seasons from 2026, which makes it the most likely UK broadcaster again for 2027, but the full rights list for France, Belgium and Switzerland for this edition has not been published yet.
Prize money for the 2027 PDC World Championship
The total prize fund stays at £5,000,000, unchanged since the historic increase that took effect for the 2026 edition (the winner's share doubled from £500,000 to £1,000,000 at that point). The full round-by-round breakdown and how it has evolved across recent editions are covered in a dedicated guide: 2026/27 World Darts Championship prize money.
Tickets for the 2027 World Darts Championship
New for this edition: the PDC is allocating tickets through a ballot system rather than a standard sale, with a record capacity of 180,000 tickets across 36 sessions in the new Great Hall. Confirmed starting prices: terraces from £55, tables from £75, and the premium "501 Club" experience from £399. The ballot windows, seating categories and practical tips for attending in London are covered in our 2026/27 tickets guide.
Who won the previous edition?
The 2026 edition ended with Luke Littler beating Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final, for his second world title. The 2027 Championship therefore opens with a closely watched defending champion, in a 128-player format now firmly established as the tournament's norm.
