The 2017 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2016/17 William Hill World Darts Championship) was the twenty-fourth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2016 to 2 January 2017.
Phil Taylor made a twenty-eighth successive appearance at a World Championship (including the BDO version), equalling the record of John Lowe.
For the first time in the history of the World Darts Championship (PDC and BDO), no Englishman progressed to the semi-finals. It was also the first time since 2009 that the final was contested by the top 2 seeds.
Michael van Gerwen set a new record for the highest World Darts Championship 3-dart average (114.05) in his semi-final victory over Raymond van Barneveld, breaking a 15-year record that had been held by Phil Taylor since 2002 (111.21); Van Barneveld himself set a new record for the highest losing 3-dart average (109.34) in the same tie, just 5 days after Cristo Reyes had broken the record in his second-round match (106.07), also against Van Gerwen.
Van Gerwen won his second World Championship title by defeating two-times defending champion Gary Anderson 7âÂÂ3 in the final. The match also featured 42 180s, which is a record for a match commissioned by the Professional Darts Cooperation.
The field consisted of 72 players, including 16 in a preliminary round. Therefore, 64 players were entered into Round 1. The schedule was announced on 15 July 2016.
The 72 players consist of:
The prize money was ã1,650,000 in total. The winner's prize money was increased from ã300,000 to ã350,000. Prize money for a nine-dart finish was originally set at ã5,000, but the PDC increased it to ã25,000 due to 'the stature of the tournament', though none were thrown.
The draw was made on 28 November live on Sky Sports News. The preliminary round draw was made the previous night.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
European Pro Tour
PDPA Qualifier<br />First round qualifier
Preliminary round qualifiers
International qualifiers<br /> First round qualifiers
Preliminary round qualifiers
Best of three sets.
This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament.
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The highest average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
<nowiki>**</nowiki> The highest losing average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
<nowiki>***</nowiki> The highest losing average in the final of a PDC World Championship.
Michael van Gerwen scored a total of 75265 points scored with 2109 darts used. This gives a tournament three dart average (3DA) of 107.06, which is the highest tournament average in the history of the PDC World Championship. Note: the tournament match average reported elsewhere is 106.37 (sum of the match averages divided by number of matches), also a record.
This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round. Twenty-two countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship.
The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:
â Sky Sports F1 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.