Unprecedented ÂŁ1million on offer at PDC World Darts Championship as biggest prize money increase in darts history confirmed
PDCMonday, 31 March 2025 at 11:03
The PDC have announced huge news on Monday morning with the confirmation of the largest prize money increase in darting history being set. An unprecedented ÂŁ1million will be introduced from 2026 for the PDC World Darts Championship winner.
But not only that as due to this huge change, over ÂŁ25million will be on offer throughout the circuit likely in a bid to balance out the huge increase for the showpiece tournament from ÂŁ500,000 currently. The PDC will boost prize money at all levels up ÂŁ7million from current levels.
The 128-player field which has been largely mooted has been confirmed for the PDC World Darts Championship. They will compete from the 2025/26 event for a prize fund of ÂŁ5million including ÂŁ1million for the winner.
The Premier League Darts also increases its stakes to ÂŁ1.25million from 2026 with ÂŁ350,000 for the champion. Albeit being unranked it will not affect the Order of Merit. But in further news, a ÂŁ1million prize fund will be available at both the World Matchplay and Grand Slam of Darts.
The latter also upgrades for 2026 to a 48-player field from 32 players currently for the 20th anniversary. The World Grand Prix, Players Championship Finals, European Championship and UK Open all increase to a ÂŁ750,000 prize fund.
The World Cup of Darts and World Series of Darts Finals also add a further ÂŁ50,000 to their tally. While European Tour and ProTours also increase to ÂŁ230,000 for the former and ÂŁ150,000 for the latter.
The PDC also increase money on the Challenge Tour, Development Tour and Women's Series events up ÂŁ5,000 per event boosting the stakes as well as the Women's World Matchplay being boosted to a ÂŁ40,000 prize fund. There is finally a 50% increase in funding for global affiliate tours and overseas development.
Prize Money increases across the board including at World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and UK Open.
PDC Chief Executive, Matt Porter said it shows the commitment to all levels as well as the flashy news of the huge PDC World Championship boost.
“The £1 million prize for the World Champion reflects darts’ standing as one of the most exciting and in-demand sports in the world and the historic total will rightly attract headlines as the biggest prize ever paid out in the sport.
“However, the increased prize funds announced today demonstrate our commitment to growing earning potential for players at all levels within the PDC system.
“Expanding the player fields for the World Darts Championship and Grand Slam of Darts will provide more opportunities than ever before for players around the world to feature in televised PDC events.
“The incredible growth of the PDC in recent years has seen darts elevated to levels never seen before both in terms of playing opportunities and global interest and this is a huge moment for all players with the ambition to make it to the very pinnacle of the sport.”
Full Prize Money Breakdowns for 2026 PDC Tour with increased figures
World Darts Championship
Winner: ÂŁ1,000,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ400,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ200,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ100,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ60,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ35,000
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ25,000
Last 128 losers: ÂŁ15,000
Total: ÂŁ5,000,000
Premier League
Winner: ÂŁ350,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ170,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ110,000
Fifth in Table: ÂŁ95,000
Sixth in Table: ÂŁ90,000
Seventh in Table: ÂŁ85,000
Eighth in Table: ÂŁ80,000
Nightly winner bonus: ÂŁ10,000
Total: ÂŁ1,250,000
World Matchplay
Winner: ÂŁ225,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ125,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ65,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ35,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ22,500
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ12,500
Total: ÂŁ1,000,000
Grand Slam of Darts
Winner: ÂŁ200,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ100,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ60,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ35,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ20,000
Second in Group: ÂŁ12,500
Third in Group: ÂŁ5,000
Total: ÂŁ1,000,000
World Grand Prix
Winner: ÂŁ150,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ80,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ50,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ35,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ20,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ7,500
Total: ÂŁ750,000
Players Championship Finals
Winner: ÂŁ130,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ70,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ40,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ27,500
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ15,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ7,000
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ4,000
Total: ÂŁ750,000
European Championship
Winner: ÂŁ150,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ80,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ50,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ35,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ20,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ7,500
Total: ÂŁ750,000
UK Open
Winner: ÂŁ120,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ60,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ35,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ20,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ12,500
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ7,500
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ3,000
Last 96 losers: ÂŁ2,000
Last 128 losers: ÂŁ1,250
Total: ÂŁ750,000
World Masters
Winner: ÂŁ100,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ50,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ30,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ17,500
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ10,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ5,000
Preliminary Rounds Last 16 losers: ÂŁ2,500
Preliminary Rounds Last 32 losers: ÂŁ1,000
Preliminary Rounds Last 64 losers: ÂŁ750
Total: ÂŁ500,000
World Cup of Darts
Winners: ÂŁ50,000 each
Runners-Up: ÂŁ24,000 each
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ15,000 each
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ10,000 each
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ5,000 each
Second in Group: ÂŁ3,000 each
Third in Group: ÂŁ2,500 each
Total: ÂŁ500,000
World Series of Darts Finals
Winner: ÂŁ100,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ60,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ30,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ17,500
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ10,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ5,000
Total: ÂŁ450,000
European Tour Events
Winner: ÂŁ35,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ15,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ10,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ8,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ5,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ3,500
Last 48 losers: ÂŁ2,000
Total: ÂŁ230,000
Players Championship Events
Winner: ÂŁ15,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ10,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ6,500
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ4,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ3,000
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ2,000
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ1,250
Total: ÂŁ150,000
World Series of Darts Events
Winner: ÂŁ30,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ16,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ10,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ5,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ1,750
Total: ÂŁ100,000
Challenge & Development Tour Events
Winner: ÂŁ3,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ2,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ1,000
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ750
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ350
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ250
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ100
Total: ÂŁ20,000
Women’s Series Events
Winner: ÂŁ2,500
Runner-Up: ÂŁ1,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ750
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ500
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ300
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ200
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ75
Total: ÂŁ15,000
Women’s World Matchplay
Winner: ÂŁ15,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ8,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ4,500
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ2,000
Total: ÂŁ40,000
World Youth Championship
Winner: ÂŁ15,000
Runner-Up: ÂŁ7,000
Semi-Finalists: ÂŁ3,400
Quarter-Finalists: ÂŁ2,000
Last 16 losers: ÂŁ1,500
Last 32 losers: ÂŁ800
Last 64 losers: ÂŁ600
Third in Group: ÂŁ400
Fourth in Group: ÂŁ200
Total: ÂŁ100,000
The biggest prize money expansion in PDC history... 🙌
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 31, 2025
There will be an unprecedented ÂŁ25 million on offer on the PDC circuit in 2026, including ÂŁ1million to the World Champion!
Full details 👉 https://t.co/490ZSdMoTC pic.twitter.com/HC6hE9V02K
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- depends on the tournament, easier to tune out at minehead where the acoustics aren't very good and half the crowd are pensioners. "keir starmer's a w*****" is their only good chant though, they should censor the rest and keep that one.colt09-03-2026
- I watched all of the UK open and didn't hear it. Does anyone actually listen to, or hear the crowd noise? I just tune it out as it gets quite annoying. If I have to hear "if you love the darts stand up" one more flippin' time.... Clearly everyone there loves the darts, they paid for tickets. Why they should stand up is beyond me (half of them are so bladdered they'd fall straight back down anyway) hahaha
DartsEnvy09-03-2026 - I can't answer why, only the PDC can. I do watch most of them on PDC TV - I have it on in the background when working from home haha. There can be some great moments in them like Beau's recent 9 darter etc. As for their significance, they all contribute to the players rankings with the winners of each day getting 15K, so they are important to their rankings as well as their overall earnings. Win 4 in a year and there's a nice 60K (runner up also gets 10K per day). Also I've seen so many interviews where players say they really enjoy it, because its "pure darts" without the spectacle and they can just get on with it. As per the original reply above, with the stage format playing in front of a bunch of booing drunkards, it's a nice change of pace and can aid concentration. So I can perfectly understand why the players like it so much - it's a good earner, not quite as late nights and very quiet / pure.DartsEnvy09-03-2026
- Would love if podcast was available on youtube. Dont have spotify.kangacheckoutz03-03-2026
- ah ok, that helps put it in context, cheersMrMarkWatsonnonotthatone28-02-2026
- Any IDeaS.....richieburnettrocks28-02-2026
- I deserve it I am the greatest I am the people's champion I believe I will win the Premier League because I believe I am the best because honestly I am the people's champion and I honestly made the fans come tonight because I am honestly the greatest and I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Oh shut up you pathetic pandering hideously ugly fat waste of space! Fatty Bunting should be more sincere and humbly accept he needed that instead of I this and I that.richieburnettrocks28-02-2026
- Wright's wife DEMANDS he continues so IT can rook every last penny from him. Commentary beckons.richieburnettrocks28-02-2026
- i can't answer this definitively, but i can make some suggestions. firstly, these are essentially just glorified qualifiers for TV events which double as helping the lesser players on tour make a living, but they aren't really considered that significant. they weren't even streamed until the past decade or so. most casual fans don't even know they exist and getting an audience in might be difficult. i'm assuming they're currently quite cheap to run and they would need to sell a lot of tickets to justify opening them up into more of a spectacle. they're held on weekdays when most people are at work anyway and there's no room on the calendar to put most of them on weekends. the logistics of presenting it to an audience would also be tricky given that they have to get through 7 rounds containing 128 players in a single day, using loads of stages simultaneously. maybe the uk open could be used as a template but it'd need to be even more condensed into a short time period, and even with the uk open it's hard to follow most of the games. the venues they're currently held at wouldn't cater for turning this into a public event as they're pretty small, so they'd need to hire much bigger venues 30 times in places around the country. it just probably isn't feasible. i also suspect the players don't really want to play in front of drunk audiences in every single domestic tournament, they already have the euro tour, world series and majors for that. the players championship is basically a way for players to demonstrate they're ready to make the step up to those levels of competition.colt26-02-2026
- Hi, can someone explain why the Players Championship takes place behind closed doors? I've been watching the big championships on and off for decades, but only just started taking a keener interest in the game, and this strange looking competition is a bit of a head scratcher to me at the moment.MrMarkWatsonnonotthatone25-02-2026
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