Schedule Wednesday night at 2025 PDC World Darts Championship: Who will join Van Gerwen & Dobey in the semifinals at the Ally Pally?

After two wonderful matches, the first two semifinalists at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship were confirmed this Wednesday afternoon. Which two players will join Chris Dobey and Michael van Gerwen on Wednesday night? Read our preview here.

In the quarterfinals, the format has again gone up slightly from the previous two rounds. Best of 9 sets will be played, meaning a player must win five sets to advance to the semifinals.

Follow the 2025 World Darts Championship via our LIVE SCORE!

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

Peter Wright v Stephen Bunting

Beforehand, people had doubts whether Peter Wright would make it through his first match at the World Darts Championship at all, but in the meantime Wright is simply in the quarter-finals. The doubts were not unjustified, as 'Snakebite' had a lousy darts year and the big question was whether Wright's time was over. The Scot started the tournament with difficulty, beating Wesley Plaisier purely on experience 3-1 in sets. Then Wright rapidly improved his level, with Wright's finishes being particularly ruthless. He settled with Jermaine Wattimena (4-2), before defending champion Luke Humphries was floored 4-1 at the last sixteen. It is the seventh time Wright has reached the last eight at Alexandra Palace. The last two times he managed this (2020 and 2022) Wright also took the world title.

Wright didn't just beat Stephen Bunting, however. 'The Bullet' has taken another step in his development in 2024, culminating in his final victory at the Masters. This tournament, the darter from St. Helens is also making a good impression, although his start against Kai Gotthardt was a bit stiff. Gotthardt led 1-0 and then missed three chances to put Bunting up 2-0. Bunting then won that match 3-1, after which he left Madars Razma (4-1) and Luke Woodhouse (4-0) both defenseless. The former Lakeside champion will play his fourth quarterfinal at the PDC World Cup. In 2015 and 2023, Bunting stranded at the last eight, while in 2021 he managed to reach the semifinals. 

In the head-to-head, Wright leads 18-12 against Bunting. In 2024, they met four times. Bunting won over Wright at the Masters and the UK Open, but then Wright twice pulled ahead 6-5 on the Euro Tour.

Can Peter Wright continue his surprisingly good Worlds?

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Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall

If we had to summarize Luke Littler's World Championship campaign, the word changeable would apply the most. Sloppy at times, but at the important moments, 'The Nuke' always stands his ground. He started his tournament with a 3-1 victory over Ryan Meikle, and then Ian White was defeated 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. After the elimination of Humphries in the fourth round, Littler is the towering favorite for the world title with the bookmakers, but will Littler withstand the mounting pressure?

For the first time since 2020, Nathan Aspinall is back in the quarterfinals of the World Darts Championship. 'The Asp' has yet to show his top form at this tournament, but he didn't need to with the opposition he faced. In his opening match, Aspinall won 3-1 over Leonard Gates, who threw just 83 average. Andrew Gilding was the second opponent. Because 'Goldfinger' threw only 87 average, the win went to 'The Asp' 4-0. His opponent in the last sixteen played even worse. Ricardo Pietreczko did not exceed an average of 78 and bowed 4-0 to the Englishman.

Aspinall met his young compatriot several times in his first season on the PDC Tour. Eight times they met, and only once did Aspinall emerge victorious. Littler is thus 7-1 ahead in the mutual balance.

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Third time lucky for Chris Dobey! 'Hollywood' survives matchdart nerves to reach first ever PDC World Darts Championship semi-final

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.

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

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

Wednesday, Jan. 1

Evening session (from 7 p.m.)

2x quarterfinals

Peter Wright v Stephen Bunting

Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall

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