ANALYSIS: PDC as competitive as ever before with 17 Players Championship tournaments bringing 16 different winners

Gone are the days where darts was a sport dominated by a single all-conquering force. Unlike in the 2000s when Phil Taylor was hoovering up titles left, right and centre, the modern game has more strength in depth than ever before.

In the 00s, Taylor was quite simply head and shoulders above the rest of the field. He won the PDC World Darts Championship eight times during the decade (2000-2002, 2004-2006, 2009-2010) and secured numerous other major titles, including the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix multiple times. Whilst his dominance in the 2000s helped elevate the sport's popularity and set new standards for excellence in professional darts, it's fair to say that pool of talent wasn't nearly as deep as the modern game where seemingly any of the Tour Card holders and even their reolacements from the Challenge Tour, have the capabilities to win a Players Championship title.

Recently, PDC statistician Christopher Kempf noted the continually growing quality of the wider Pro Tour field. "If you were ranked in the 20s or 30s of the PDC Order of Merit ten years ago, it might have felt like the most important achievement you could claim was an appearance in the semi-finals or finals of a Pro Tour event, in which one would inevitably lose to Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson or another TV titan," Kempf reflected. "Has the PDC reached the point at which any Tour Card Holder can win a Players Championship? Limited records exist from 2014, years before the PDC-wide adoption of DartConnect. What statistics we have, though, suggest that it is much harder to win even one's first match in a Players Championship event."

Such a growth in the strength in depth can be shown as plain as day by the fact that through the 17 Players Championship tournaments played on the Pro Tour so far in 2024, there have been 16 different winners of these events, with only teenage sensation Luke Littler bagging multiple title wins at Player's Championship 1 back on the 12th of February and Players Championship 15 on July 31st.

After Littler's 8-7 victory over Ryan Searle in the opening event of the year, Searle was again on the wrong end of the result in the final of Players Championship 2 as Gary Anderson secured victory. At Players Championship 3 however, it was third time lucky for 'Heavy Metal' as Searle finally, in his third successive final managed to take the title, gaining revenge on Anderson in the process with a thrilling 8-7 win.

From there, Damon Heta proved strongest at Players Championship 4, outlasting Chris Dobey 8-4 in the final, before Raymond van Barneveld and Dave Chisnall took PC5 and PC6 respectively, as the Pro Tour visited its regular European home of Hildesheim, Germany for the first time this campaign. Returning to Leicester, England for Players Championships 7 and 8, Chris Dobey and Danny Noppert were the next two names to get themselves a taste of the glory this year.

May and June each had two Pro Tour events apiece, with all four being held in Hildesheim. The quartet of tournaments brought another four different winners and from four different nations to boot. Englishman Michael Smith beat compatriot Ryan Joyce in the final of Players Championship 9 before Northern Irish Brendan Dolan overcame Jeffrey de Graaf at Players Championship 10. Then it was Scotland's turn as Alan Soutar picked up his first ever PDC title at PC11 before the block was brought to a close by Dimitri Van den Bergh's win at PC12, defeating Canada's Matt Campbell in the final.

Further proving the growing quality across the darting world, non Tour Card holder Wesley Plaisier then reached back to back finals at Players Championship 13 and 14. Although the Dutchman lost both, to Ross Smith and Jonny Clayton respectively, the fact even players such as Plaisier, who couldn't make it through Q-School were competing for wins in these gruelling events and averaging over 100 in both losing finals, says a lot.

Finally, at the most recent block of Pro Tours held earlier this week in Milton Keynes, Luke Littler became the first man to double up, beating the standard bearer of the Development Tour, Wessel Nijman in the final of Players Championship 15, before Mike De Decker took the first Pro Tour title of his career at PC16 and Josh Rock edged Joe Cullen in the final of Players Championship 17.

So, 17 different Players Championship tournaments played at the time of writing, with 16 different winners from seven different nations and a further 10 different players reaching a final without winning, hailing from various nations as diverse as Canada and Sweden.

Also worth noting is the fact that from the winners list on the 2024 Pro Tour, a number of the most notable names in the sport are absent. The likes of Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and James Wade among others have all featured on the Pro Tour this year, albeit with varying levels of regularity, but none of this elite group of former world champions, major winners and Premier League Darts stars have managed to even get themselves into a Players Championship final so far this campaign.

With 13 Players Championship events still to go this season, before the Players Championship Finals are held in Butlins, Minehead between November 22nd and 24th, could this string of different winners really continue? Well, as mentioned throughout this piece, the strength in depth of the field at these events has genuinely never been this competitive. Every single player that turns up, even the late replacements from the Challenge Tour have the game to win on their best day and it's making for some truly intriguing play. Seeded status has never meant so little, with a challenging run to the final guaranteed for all. Long may it continue!

A total of 125,000 pounds in prize money is distributed at each Players Championship tournament. The winner of the event will receive a check for 15,000 pounds.