2018 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2018 William Hill World Darts Championship was a darts event, held between 14 December 2017 and 1 January 2018 at the Alexandra Palace in London, United Kingdom. It was the 25th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation.

2018 William Hill World Darts Championship
Alex palace1
Tournament information
Dates14 December 2017 –
1 January 2018
VenueAlexandra Palace
LocationLondon
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatSets
Final – best of 13
Prize fund£1,800,000
Winner's share£400,000
High checkout170 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen
170 England Stephen Bunting
170 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney
170 Canada Jeff Smith
170 Wales Jamie Lewis
170 England Steve West
Champion(s)
England Rob Cross
«2017 2019»
Rob Cross - PDC German Darts Grand Prix (GDGP)

Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, but lost 6–5 in sets to Rob Cross in the semi-finals, with the score at 5–5 in sets and with van Gerwen leading 5–4 in legs he missed 5 match darts to beat Cross. Cross forced an 11th and sudden death leg, van Gerwen missed a 6th match dart before Cross hit double 8 to win an epic semi-final and reach his first world final. Cross went on to win the World Championship on his debut by defeating Phil Taylor 7–2 in the final. Cross only turned professional 11 months prior to the event. This was Taylor's 29th and final World Championship, surpassing the record of 28 appearances he jointly held with John Lowe.

Jamie Lewis became the first player to reach the semi-finals after entering the championship through a preliminary round event, first introduced at the 2004 Championship. Lewis eventually fell to Taylor in the semi-final, by a score of 6–1.

Prize money

The prize money for the tournament was a record high of £1,800,000 in total. The winner's prize money has increased from £350,000 to £400,000.[1]

Position (num. of players) Prize money
(Total: £1,800,000)
Winner (1) £400,000
Runner-up (1) £170,000
Semi-finalists (2) £85,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £40,000
Third round losers (8) £27,000
Second round losers (16) £18,500
First round losers (32) £11,000
Preliminary round losers (8) £4,500
Nine-dart finish (0) £20,000

Qualification

Qualifiers

[2]

  1. Per the PDC Order of Merit Rules, invited players shall be placed in to either the Preliminary or first round draws for the event based on their position in the Order of Merit (if applicable). If insufficient players hold a position of the Order of Merit, the PDC will select which players are placed in to which round at the discretion of its board of Directors.[4]

Background
Michael van Gerwen, the number one seed, was the reigning and defending champion, prior to the tournament.

72 players competed in the championship; with the 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded, and the next sixteen highest ranked players from the 2017 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit and the top eight ranked players from a number of international and invitational qualifiers also going straight into the first round. The remaining sixteen international and invitational qualifiers competed in a preliminary round.

Michael van Gerwen, the winner of the 2014 and 2017 championships, was top of the two-year PDC Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament.[2] The tournament was to be the last for Phil Taylor, who had won the PDC World Championship fourteen times previously, most recently in 2013.[5] As well as van Gerwen and Taylor, three other previous PDC world champions qualified as seeds, two-time champions Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis, and 2007 champion Raymond van Barneveld.

The top seeds below van Gerwen were 2017 UK Open winner Peter Wright, Gary Anderson, 2017 World Grand Prix winner Daryl Gurney and 2017 Champions League of Darts winner Mensur Suljović.[2] Rob Cross, the runner-up at the 2017 European Championship, made his World Championship debut as the 20th seed.[2]

Richard North, in his debut year, was the highest ranked non-seed on the 2017 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit. As well as North, three other qualifiers through the Pro Tour made their debut, Peter Jacques, Steve Lennon and Martin Schindler.[2] The list of qualifiers also included the 2017 Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and the 2004 runner-up Kevin Painter.

Amongst the international and invitational qualification tournaments there was, for the first time, a South and Central American Qualifier.[6] The majority of tournaments were the same as had been for the previous championship, but there was no longer a Philippines Championship.[7] Gordon Mathers was the first player to qualify for the Championships, having finished top of the Dartplayers Australia rankings.[8] The top two players on the Nordic & Baltic rankings also qualified,[7] as did the winners of the fifteen international qualifiers, including the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship.

The final four qualification places were announced on 19 October,[7] with places being given to the highest ranked Eastern European, Krzysztof Ratajski, the National Darts Federation of Canada number one Jeff Smith, the highest ranked African, Devon Petersen, and the then-undetermined 2017 Development Tour winner, Luke Humphries.[9] The sudden announcement of these places, and the granting of them to Ratajski, who had declined an invitation to the rival 2018 BDO World Darts Championship before failing to qualify through the 2017 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit; and Jeff Smith, who had failed to qualify for the BDO World Darts Championship and not played a single PDC event in the previous year, were criticized by some, with ITV4 pundit and tour card holder Paul Nicholson saying he had written to the Professional Darts Players Association to seek clarification over the placings.[10]

The final three placings were determined by the PDPA qualifier held at Arena MK on 27 November, with Ted Evetts securing a first round place by winning the tournament, and runner-up Brendan Dolan and third-place playoff winner Jamie Lewis both qualifying to the preliminary round. The third place had become available as the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship, which carries a qualification place, was won by Dimitri Van den Bergh, who qualified through the Pro Tour Order of Merit.[3]

15 of the international and invitational qualifiers were making their PDC World Championship debuts, Seigo Asada,[7] Willard Bruguier,[7] Ted Evetts,[3] Cody Harris,[7] Luke Humphries,[9] Kai Fan Leung,[11] Alan Ljubić,[12] Gordon Mathers,[7] Kenny Neyens,[13] William O'Connor,[7] Diogo Portela,[14] Krzysztof Ratajski,[7] Bernie Smith,[15] Jeff Smith,[7] and Zong Xiao Chen.[16] Portela was the first ever Brazilian to qualify for the World Championships.[17]

Summary
Rob Cross won the championship in his debut year.
Phil Taylor (pictured in 2009), sixteen-time world darts champion (14 time PDC champion) in his final year before retirement, lost in the final.

The top quarter of the draw saw reigning champion Michael van Gerwen dominate, knocking fellow Dutchman Christian Kist out in the first round,[18] before defeating James Wilson, without losing any of the twelve legs played,[19][20] and Gerwyn Price,[21] to set up a quarter-final with fellow Dutch former world champion Raymond van Barneveld. In the quarter-final, van Gerwen took an early lead, but missed a dart in the fifth set to take a 4–1 lead and ended up being pulled back to 3–3. The two took one more set each before van Gerwen won the deciding set 3–1 to qualify for the semi-final.[22]

In the second quarter, the fourth seed, Daryl Gurney, was eliminated in the second round by John Henderson.[23] Debutant Rob Cross defeated Michael Smith in the second round after Smith missed two match darts,[24] and Cross went on to defeat Henderson[25] to set up a quarter-final against the World Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, who had defeated fifth seed Mensur Suljović in the third round.[26] In the quarter-final, Cross led his Belgian opponent early on, leading 4–1 in the best-of-nine match after five sets. Van den Bergh took the next three sets in succession, setting up a decider which Cross won 3–1, hitting double one in the final leg to qualify for the semi-final.[22]

The two highest-ranked seeds in the third quarter fell early on. Two-time champion and seventh seed Adrian Lewis was knocked out in the first round by German qualifier Kevin Münch,[27] while the second seed Peter Wright was knocked out in the second round by Jamie Lewis, who had qualified for the event by coming third in the final PDPA Qualifier.[28] Welshman Jamie Lewis went past the unseeded James Richardson in the third round, becoming the first player to go from the preliminary round to the quarter-final in the history of the championship;[29] before whitewashing Darren Webster to reach the semi-final.[22]

Two former world champions, two-time champion Gary Anderson and retiring sixteen-time champion Phil Taylor, met in the last quarter-final. Anderson's run to the quarter-final included a second round win over 63-year-old Singaporean, Paul Lim, a match noted for a leg in which Lim, who in 1990 had become the first player to throw a perfect nine-dart leg in the World Darts Championship,[30] missed a dart at double twelve to repeat the feat.[31] Taylor had faced English opposition in his three previous rounds, beating Chris Dobey[32] in the first round before whitewashing Justin Pipe[33] and Keegan Brown[34] in the next two rounds to set up the quarter-final. Taylor took a 4–1 lead after winning six consecutive legs, and despite Anderson winning the next two sets, Taylor took advantage of missed darts in the eighth set to triumph, 5–3.[22]

The semi-final between Taylor and Lewis was the first to be played, and, despite Lewis winning the first set, Taylor took the next three, with Lewis having missed darts in all three sets to have potentially been 4–0 up. Taylor won the next two sets as well, before Lewis took the first two legs in the seventh set, with Taylor taking advantage of three missed set darts from Lewis to steal the set and qualify for the twenty-first World Darts Championship final in his career.[35]

In the second semi-final, debutant Cross took on reigning world champion van Gerwen. The first eight sets in the match all went with throw, with Cross taking a lead before being pegged back by van Gerwen. Michael van Gerwen got the first break in the ninth set, taking a 5–4 lead to throw for the match, but Cross fought back to win the tenth set 3–1 to force a deciding set. In the deciding set – which had to be won by two clear legs until the eleventh leg was reached – Cross missed a match-winning dart at the bull with the score at 3–2, before van Gerwen won two legs in succession to take a 5–4 lead. With both players under pressure, van Gerwen missed five darts to win the tenth leg, before Cross hit a double 18 to force a sudden death leg. Both Cross and van Gerwen missed match darts at double 16 before Cross hit double 8 to qualify for the final in his debut entry,[36] becoming the first player to make the final on his debut since Kirk Shepherd in 2008.[37]

In the final, held on New Year's Day 2018, Phil Taylor won the bull-off, but opted to allow Cross to throw first. Rob Cross held the first set 3–1, and broke in the second set by the same scoreline, before winning the third set 3–0. Taylor scored his first set with a 3–0 win in the fourth, before missing a dart at double twelve for a potential perfect nine-dart leg in the first leg of the fifth set.[38] Cross won that leg and the next two to restore his three set lead, before breaking Taylor in the first leg of the sixth set, and the fourth leg of the seventh, taking a 6–1 lead in the best-of-thirteen match.[39] Taylor held the eighth set 3–0, but Cross held the first leg in the ninth set, before hitting double-eight to break and go one leg away from the championship, and in the final leg, hit a 140 finish, treble-18, treble-18, double-16 to win the world championship.[40]

Preliminary round

The draw was made on 26 November 2017.[41]

Best of three sets.

Av. Player Score Player Av.
86.65 Seigo Asada Japan 2 – 1 Australia Gordon Mathers 82.65
92.19 Brendan Dolan Northern Ireland 2 – 0 Croatia Alan Ljubić 85.36
95.39 Jeff Smith Canada 2 – 0 England Luke Humphries 88.56
87.21 Kenny Neyens Belgium 1 – 2 Wales Jamie Lewis 93.17
83.96 Willard Bruguier United States 1 – 2 New Zealand Cody Harris 84.30
81.74 Kai Fan Leung Hong Kong 0 – 2 Singapore Paul Lim 86.25
76.70 Aleksandr Oreshkin Russia 0 – 2 Germany Kevin Münch 84.66
86.97 Zong Xiao Chen China 0 – 2 New Zealand Bernie Smith 87.47

Main draw

The draw for the main round was made live on Sky Sports News on 27 November 2017.[42][43]

First round (best of 5 sets)
14–21 December
[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] 		Second round (best of 7 sets)
22–27 December
[52][53][54] 		Third round (best of 7 sets)
27–28 December
[54][25] 		Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets)
29 December
[22] 		Semi-finals (best of 11 sets)
30 December
[35] 		Final (best of 13 sets)
1 January
[40]
                  
1 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 106.17 3
Netherlands Christian Kist 100.23 1
1 Netherlands van Gerwen 108.65 4
32 England Wilson 96.02 0
32 England James Wilson 97.94 3
Poland Krzysztof Ratajski 92.59 1
1 Netherlands van Gerwen 100.06 4
16 Wales Price 97.06 2
16 Wales Gerwyn Price 101.55 3
England Ted Evetts 85.60 0
16 Wales Price 96.93 4
17 England White 93.62 1
17 England Ian White 96.89 3
New Zealand Cody Harris 85.47 1
1 Netherlands van Gerwen 102.91 5
9 Netherlands van Barneveld 98.76 4
8 England Dave Chisnall 96.75 0
Netherlands Vincent van der Voort 98.90 3
Netherlands van der Voort 101.17 4
25 England Beaton 94.26 0
25 England Steve Beaton 93.28 3
Republic of Ireland William O'Connor 91.27 1
Netherlands van der Voort 93.09 1
9 Netherlands van Barneveld 101.04 4
9 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 102.00 3
England Richard North 91.98 0
9 Netherlands van Barneveld 102.78 4
24 Australia K. Anderson 95.95 1
24 Australia Kyle Anderson 93.08 3
England Peter Jacques 85.79 1
1 Netherlands van Gerwen 102.44 5
20 England Cross 100.97 6
5 Austria Mensur Suljović 93.03 3
England Kevin Painter 88.58 0
5 Austria Suljović 90.66 4
28 Scotland Thornton 93.51 2
28 Scotland Robert Thornton 98.67 3
Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan 94.83 1
5 Austria Suljović 94.35 0
Belgium Van den Bergh 96.60 4
12 Netherlands Jelle Klaasen 96.73 1
Netherlands Jan Dekker 95.74 3
  Netherlands Dekker 97.27 2
Belgium Van den Bergh 94.91 4
21 England Stephen Bunting 98.14 1
Belgium Dimitri Van den Bergh 104.17 3
Belgium Van den Bergh 98.60 4
20 England Cross 97.13 5
4 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney 100.51 3
Belgium Ronny Huybrechts 96.74 1
4 Northern Ireland Gurney 95.58 2
29 Scotland Henderson 95.89 4
29 Scotland John Henderson 90.09 3
Finland Marko Kantele 87.21 0
29 Scotland Henderson 92.81 1
20 England Cross 99.77 4
13 England Michael Smith 92.63 3
Republic of Ireland Steve Lennon 94.95 2
13 England M. Smith 103.29 3
20 England Cross 102.65 4
20 England Rob Cross 104.12 3
Japan Seigo Asada 92.91 0
20 England Cross 107.67 7
6 England Taylor 102.26 2
2 Scotland Peter Wright 97.90 3
Brazil Diogo Portela 91.66 1
2 Scotland Wright 103.44 1
Wales J. Lewis 107.27 4
31 Wales Jonny Clayton 81.83 0
Wales Jamie Lewis 99.02 3
  Wales J. Lewis 96.25 4
England Richardson 89.02 1
15 England Alan Norris 95.41 3
Finland Kim Viljanen 90.38 0
15 England Norris 86.76 1
England Richardson 86.78 4
18 Belgium Kim Huybrechts 86.40 0
England James Richardson 96.91 3
Wales J. Lewis 101.26 5
23 England D. Webster 91.88 0
7 England Adrian Lewis 94.04 1
Germany Kevin Münch 93.48 3
  Germany Münch 81.94 1
Spain Alcinas 91.11 4
26 Spain Cristo Reyes 85.26 1
Spain Toni Alcinas 85.85 3
Spain Alcinas 88.25 0
23 England D. Webster 94.54 4
10 Australia Simon Whitlock 87.42 3
Germany Martin Schindler 84.01 1
10 Australia Whitlock 92.16 1
23 England D. Webster 90.20 4
23 England Darren Webster 90.81 3
South Africa Devon Petersen 87.16 2
Wales J. Lewis 97.35 1
6 England Taylor 99.87 6
6 England Phil Taylor 96.33 3
England Chris Dobey 91.72 1
6 England Taylor 99.37 4
27 England Pipe 90.30 0
27 England Justin Pipe 89.24 3
New Zealand Bernie Smith 87.11 2
6 England Taylor 101.34 4
England Brown 96.56 0
11 England James Wade 93.01 2
England Keegan Brown 95.45 3
  England Brown 87.65 4
Austria Lerchbacher 87.10 2
22 England Mervyn King 82.89 2
Austria Zoran Lerchbacher 92.09 3
6 England Taylor 102.02 5
3 Scotland G. Anderson 98.68 3
3 Scotland Gary Anderson 100.93 3
Canada Jeff Smith 78.38 0
3 Scotland G. Anderson 97.46 4
Singapore Lim 90.60 1
30 Wales Mark Webster 91.67 2
Singapore Paul Lim 95.98 3
3 Scotland G. Anderson 95.26 4
England West 92.60 2
14 Netherlands Benito van de Pas 90.58 1
England Steve West 95.97 3
  England West 87.92 4
Netherlands Wattimena 87.54 1
19 England Joe Cullen 96.11 2
Netherlands Jermaine Wattimena 96.83 3

Final
Final: Best of 13 sets.
Referees: England George Noble (first half) and England Kirk Bevins (second half).
Alexandra Palace, London, England, 1 January 2018.
(20) Rob Cross England 7 – 2 England Phil Taylor (6)
3 – 1, 3 – 1, 3 – 0, 0 – 3, 3 – 0, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 3 – 0
107.67 Average (3 darts) 102.26
27 100+ scores 33
27 140+ scores 20
11 180 scores 12
167 Highest checkout 151
3 100+ Checkouts 2
60% (21/35) Checkout summary 45.45% (10/22)

Statistics
Player Eliminated Played Sets Won Sets Lost Legs Won Legs Lost Leg Breaks 100+ 140+ 180s High checkout Checkout Av.% Average[lower-alpha 1]
England Rob Cross Winner 6 29 15 101 82 38 201 122 66 167 44.49 102.05
England Phil Taylor Runner-up 6 24 12 85 64 34 202 92 38 151 51.20 100.20
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen Semi-finals 5 21 13 84 63 36 160 107 48 170 41.38 104.05
Wales Jamie Lewis Semi-finals 6 19 9 74 52 32 138 95 50 170 43.53 99.05
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld Quarter-finals 4 15 7 54 35 26 129 87 21 161 43.90 101.15
Belgium Dimitri Van den Bergh Quarter-finals 4 15 8 53 40 21 111 65 30 134 40.46 98.57
Scotland Gary Anderson Quarter-finals 4 14 8 51 40 18 114 63 26 115 38.06 98.08
England Darren Webster Quarter-finals 4 11 8 40 35 16 101 52 15 160 37.38 91.85
Wales Gerwyn Price Third round 3 9 5 35 25 15 67 45 21 114 39.77 98.51
Netherlands Vincent van der Voort Third round 3 8 4 26 23 12 63 26 15 156 57.78 97.72
England Keegan Brown Third round 3 7 8 31 34 9 77 34 10 124 37.35 93.22
Scotland John Henderson Third round 3 8 6 30 28 12 79 45 11 160 46.15 92.93
Austria Mensur Suljović Third round 3 7 6 28 26 12 78 42 5 121 37.84 92.68
England Steve West Third round 3 9 6 36 26 10 77 46 15 170 42.35 92.16
England James Richardson Third round 3 8 5 31 26 11 67 38 17 106 32.63 90.90
Spain Toni Alcinas Third round 3 7 6 29 26 12 66 39 8 121 36.25 88.40
Scotland Peter Wright Second round 2 4 5 21 19 9 54 39 11 121 42.00 100.67
Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney Second round 2 5 5 22 20 9 44 33 14 170 42.31 98.05
England Michael Smith Second round 2 6 6 27 21 10 58 24 23 150 36.99 97.96
England James Wilson Second round 2 3 5 10 20 3 38 19 9 95 40.00 96.98
Netherlands Jan Dekker Second round 2 5 5 17 21 6 41 31 3 128 48.57 96.51
Scotland Robert Thornton Second round 2 5 5 21 23 7 58 28 11 144 50.00 96.09
England Ian White Second round 2 4 5 19 18 9 45 30 8 151 52.78 95.26
Australia Kyle Anderson Second round 2 4 5 17 18 8 35 8 9 114 44.74 94.52
England Steve Beaton Second round 2 3 5 14 17 7 42 26 6 131 35.00 93.77
Netherlands Jermaine Wattimena Second round 2 4 6 16 22 6 51 25 2 141 35.56 92.19
England Alan Norris Second round 2 4 4 19 17 8 39 22 9 131 32.20 91.09
Singapore Paul Lim Second round 3 6 6 24 26 11 56 30 16 118 33.33 90.94
Australia Simon Whitlock Second round 2 4 5 19 18 5 40 16 11 127 33.93 89.79
England Justin Pipe Second round 2 3 6 15 21 8 42 19 4 96 34.09 89.77
Austria Zoran Lerchbacher Second round 2 5 6 26 21 7 77 28 6 122 42.62 89.60
Germany Kevin Münch Second round 3 6 5 23 22 9 50 23 12 158 36.51 86.69
Netherlands Christian Kist First round 1 1 3 4 11 0 17 13 2 86 44.44 100.23
England Stephen Bunting First round 1 1 3 8 10 2 20 14 4 170 53.33 98.14
England Dave Chisnall First round 1 0 3 4 9 1 21 6 2 132 66.67 96.75
Belgium Ronny Huybrechts First round 1 1 3 6 10 2 22 12 2 112 37.50 96.74
Netherlands Jelle Klaasen First round 1 1 3 7 9 2 19 11 4 101 31.82 96.73
England Joe Cullen First round 1 2 3 10 10 4 31 7 5 135 52.63 96.11
Republic of Ireland Steve Lennon First round 1 2 3 9 11 3 22 16 6 91 37.50 94.95
England Adrian Lewis First round 1 1 3 7 10 2 26 9 3 121 43.75 94.04
Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan First round 2 3 3 15 10 6 37 17 4 126 62.50 93.51
England James Wade First round 1 2 3 9 12 2 21 12 1 110 64.29 93.01
Poland Krzysztof Ratajski First round 1 1 3 8 10 3 20 8 1 106 57.14 92.59
England Richard North First round 1 0 3 3 9 0 12 7 4 40 23.08 91.98
England Chris Dobey First round 1 1 3 8 11 1 17 8 6 104 53.33 91.72
Wales Mark Webster First round 1 2 3 10 13 5 28 11 4 77 40.00 91.67
Brazil Diogo Portela First round 1 1 3 5 11 1 16 7 3 99 62.50 91.66
Republic of Ireland William O'Connor First round 1 1 3 5 9 3 14 7 6 115 21.74 91.27
Netherlands Benito van de Pas First round 1 1 3 5 11 1 17 11 1 124 38.46 90.58
Finland Kim Viljanen First round 1 0 3 3 9 2 12 8 3 76 27.27 90.38
Japan Seigo Asada First round 2 2 4 12 14 5 37 13 3 120 41.38 89.78
England Kevin Painter First round 1 0 3 2 9 2 8 9 3 88 16.67 88.58
New Zealand Bernie Smith First round 2 4 3 15 14 8 39 16 4 146 39.47 87.29
Finland Marko Kantele First round 1 0 3 3 9 1 9 8 2 62 60.00 87.21
South Africa Devon Petersen First round 1 2 3 8 11 4 21 15 4 60 32.00 87.16
Canada Jeff Smith First round 2 2 3 8 12 1 21 14 1 170 44.44 86.89
Belgium Kim Huybrechts First round 1 0 3 2 9 0 10 5 2 16 18.18 86.40
England Peter Jacques First round 1 1 3 6 11 2 18 5 5 75 28.57 85.79
England Ted Evetts First round 1 0 3 3 9 1 11 6 1 76 75.00 85.60
Spain Cristo Reyes First round 1 1 3 7 11 2 20 8 3 118 35.00 85.26
New Zealand Cody Harris First round 2 3 4 13 15 7 48 13 4 121 29.55 84.89
Germany Martin Schindler First round 1 1 3 6 11 1 18 10 3 60 17.65 84.01
England Mervyn King First round 1 2 3 7 13 1 18 12 1 112 36.84 82.89
Wales Jonny Clayton First round 1 0 3 4 9 1 12 9 2 104 28.57 81.83
England Luke Humphries Prelim. Round 1 0 2 3 6 0 12 5 0 94 75.00 88.56
Belgium Kenny Neyens Prelim. Round 1 1 2 5 8 2 14 4 5 74 29.41 87.21
China Zong Xiao Chen Prelim. Round 1 0 2 1 6 0 11 2 2 40 16.67 86.97
Croatia Alan Ljubić Prelim. Round 1 0 2 1 6 1 10 2 0 56 25.00 85.36
United States Willard Bruguier Prelim. Round 1 1 2 5 8 2 25 5 0 112 29.41 83.96
Australia Gordon Mathers Prelim. Round 1 1 2 5 7 2 13 10 1 46 45.45 82.65
Hong Kong Kai Fan Leung Prelim. Round 1 0 2 3 6 2 15 2 0 52 30.00 81.74
Russia Aleksandr Oreshkin Prelim. Round 1 0 2 1 6 1 5 5 0 10 10.00 76.70
  1. Please note this is not calculated properly for players playing more than one match and is not indicative of actual tournament averages.

Top averages

This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament.

# Player Round Score Result
1Netherlands Michael van Gerwen2108.65Won
2England Rob CrossF107.67Won
3Wales Jamie Lewis2107.27Won
4Netherlands Michael van Gerwen1106.17Won
5Belgium Dimitri Van den Bergh1104.17Won
6England Rob Cross1104.12Won
7Scotland Peter Wright2103.44Lost
8England Michael Smith2103.29Lost
9Netherlands Michael van GerwenQF102.91Won
10Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld2102.78Won

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round. Twenty-four countries were represented in the World Championship, two more than in the previous championship.

England
ENG		 Netherlands
NED		 Scotland
SCO		 Wales
WAL		 Belgium
BEL		 Australia
AUS		 Austria
AUT		 Northern Ireland
NIR		 Germany
GER		 Spain
SPA		 Finland
FIN		 Republic of Ireland
IRL		 New Zealand
NZL		 Singapore
SGP		 Canada
CAN		 Japan
JPN		 Brazil
BRA		 Poland
POL		 South Africa
RSA		 China
CHN		 Croatia
CRO		 Hong Kong
HKG		 Russia
RUS		 United States
USA		 Total
Final 2000000000000000000000002
Semi-final 2101000000000000000000004
Quarter-final 3211100000000000000000008
Round 3 63221010010000000000000016
Round 2 125421221110001000000000032
Round 1 238443222222221111110000064
Prelim. 10011101100021110001111116
Total 248444322222221111111111172

Media coverage

The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:

Country Channel
 United Kingdom
 Ireland		Sky Sports Darts †[55]
Talksport[56]
 Australia
Fox Sports[57]
 BelgiumEleven Sport Network[58]
 Bulgaria
 Denmark
 Finland
 Norway
 Sweden
Baltic States		Viasat[57]
 ChinaCCTV[59]
 CroatiaRTL Televizija[59]
 Cyprus
 Greece
 Israel
 Italy
 Malta
 Turkey
Fox Sports[59]
 Czech Republic
 Slovakia		Nova Sport[57]
 France
 Portugal
 Romania
 Spain		Eurosport[59]
 Germany
 Austria
  Switzerland		Sport 1[57]
 Germany
  Switzerland
 Austria
 Japan
 Canada		DAZN[59]
 HungaryPragosport[57]
 MongoliaMNBA Sports TV
 NetherlandsRTL7[57]
 New ZealandSky Sport[57]
 PolandTVP Sport[57][60]
 United StatesBBC America[61]
MENAOSN Sports[57]
Sub-Saharan AfricaKwesé Sports[57]

Additionally, there was coverage in Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, France, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan on Eurosport Player, and coverage in all countries except the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands on the Professional Darts Corporation's streaming service, PDCTV-HD.[59]

† Sky Sports Arena was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.

References
  1. "PDC Order of Merit Rules". www.pdc.tv. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  2. "World Championship Field Confirmed". PDC. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  3. Allen, Dave (27 November 2017). "Evetts, Dolan & Lewis Qualify". PDC. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  4. "PDC Order of Merit Rules". PDC.
  5. "Power to be turned off in 2018 as Taylor announces retirement date". ESPN. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  6. Allen, Dave (29 August 2017). "Ally Pally Spot For South & Central America". PDC. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  7. Allen, Dave (19 October 2017). "International qualifiers Confirmed". PDC. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  8. Allen, Dave (18 June 2017). "Mathers Tops Final DPA Rankings". Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  9. Allen, Dave (5 November 2017). "Humphries Seals Glory As Rodriguez Takes Win". PDC. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  10. Shaw, Jamie (25 October 2017). "If your face fits: Why the PDC should stop rolling out the red carpet". Live Darts. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  11. "Kai Fan Leung Player Profile". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  12. Allen, Dave (1 October 2017). "World Championship Debut For Ljubic". PDC. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
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