Preview Final PDC World Darts Championship 2025: Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen battle for world title

We have arrived at the final of the PDC World Darts Championship. Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen managed to get through their side of the bracket and will battle each other for the world title at the Alexandra Palace on Friday night.

It is the 32nd edition of the World Darts Championship at the PDC. Van Gerwen can cement his place in the PDC's history books with a world title, while Littler can become the thirteenth world champion.

Follow the 2025 World Darts Championship via our LIVE SCORE!

Read also

Everything about the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship: Schedule, results, TV guide and prize money

Luke Littler v Michael van Gerwen

For Luke Littler, it is his second World Championship final in a row. Last year, 'The Nuke' sensationally reached the final of the World Darts Championship on his debut in London, but then Littler lost to Luke Humphries. Against Michael van Gerwen, Littler will get another chance at the most important title in the sport. The 17-year-old teenage sensation started the tournament sloppily, but at the important moments 'The Nuke' always stood his ground. He began his tournament with a 3-1 win over Ryan Meikle, and then beat Ian White 4-1. That result was somewhat skewed, as White missed set darts in two of his lost sets. Ryan Joyce then made Littler's life pretty miserable at the last sixteen, but Littler came out on top and prevailed 4-3. In the quarterfinals against Nathan Aspinall, Littler was the better from the start and won 5-2. Still, "The Nuke" was once again shaky. He threw out ten legs in four innings, but his average still only finished at 101.54. In the semifinal against Stephen Bunting, Littler played another level better. He slaughtered "The Bullet" 6-1 and threw a 105.48 average. This is the form that may be needed to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy on Friday night for the first time in his career.

Michael van Gerwen is in the final of the World Darts Championship for the seventh time in his career. In 2013, Van Gerwen lost his first World Championship final, but then "Mighty Mike" took the world title in 2014, 2017 and 2019. After that, however, Van Gerwen lost his finals in 2020 and 2023. Now the 35-year-old gets another chance at a fourth world title. Van Gerwen grew in the tournament, as it is nicely called. The Dutchman opened his World Championship campaign with a 3-0 victory over James Hurrell with an average of 95, after which he reached an average of 97 in his match against Brendan Dolan at the last 32. In the Last 16, Van Gerwen made another move. In a high-class match, he defeated Jeffrey de Graaf 4-2 thanks to an average of 102. With this form, Van Gerwen can become world champion, De Graaf also indicated after his lost match. In the quarterfinals against Callan Rydz, Van Gerwen was severely tested. Rydz fired no less than seventeen 180 scores, but the important moments were more often in favor of 'MVG' and Van Gerwen then won that match 5-3. In the semi-final match Chris Dobey had to face him. Hollywood' took a heavy beating from the three-time world champion 6-1.

Littler has only been on the darts circuit for more than a year, but in the past twelve months he has met Van Gerwen on numerous occasions. No less than twelve times they have competed against each other, and both players won six times. Littler won the first showdown in the final of the Bahrain Darts Masters in mid-January 2024, but a week later Van Gerwen took revenge in the final of the Dutch Darts Masters. They faced each other seven times during the Premier League, with Van Gerwen winning four times. Van Gerwen then also picked up a win against Littler at the World Matchplay, before Littler was too strong for Van Gerwen at the World Series Finals and the Czech Darts Open. Certainly the last encounter in Prague was a memorable one. Van Gerwen then threw an average of 112.19, but nevertheless Littler won 6-1.

Read also

Here's how much players can earn in Prize Money at 2025 PDC World Darts Championship

TV Guide during World Darts Championship

Sky Sports are broadcasting the entire World Darts Championship in the UK with coverage throughout on a dedicated channel Sky Sports Darts.

A subscription is required to access this though which can be sought on a Sky box or through their streaming platform.

Prize money

The 96 participants at the 2025 World Darts Championship may divide as much as 2.5 million pounds between them. That amount is almost forty times higher than at the very first edition of the PDC Worlds in 1994.

The 64 participants to start in the first round of the World Darts Championship will receive £7500 in prize money anyway. The top-32 of the seeding list are guaranteed 15,000 pounds. These players enter the World Darts Championship from the second round. The amount then increases further each round. The new world champion will receive the top prize of 500,000 pounds.

Format

First round: Best of 5 sets

Second round: Best of 5 sets

Third round: Best of 7 sets

Fourth round: Best of 7 sets

Quarterfinals: Best of 9 sets

Semifinals: Best of 11 sets

Final: Best of 13 sets

In the first round, there will be no tiebreak if it is 2-2 after four legs in the fifth set. In that case, the fifth leg will be sudden-death. Starting from the second round, a tie-break rule will be applied in all matches; a deciding set must be won with a difference of two legs. If the score in the final set becomes 5-5, a sudden-death leg will still be played.

World Darts Championship 2025 Schedule

Friday, Jan. 3 (from 8 p.m.)

Finale

Luke Littler v Michael van Gerwen

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Unlock your ultimate darts experience—subscribe today for exclusive access to top stories.

Subscribe