World Darts Championship 2026/27: Dates, Schedule & Key Facts
Last updated: October 2026. The draw and the day-by-day order of play arrive in late November, and this page will be updated as soon as they are confirmed.
Quick Answer
The PDC World Darts Championship 2026/27 starts on Friday 11 December 2026 at Alexandra Palace in London, and the final is on Sunday 3 January 2027. All 128 players go into one straight knockout, Luke Littler is the defending champion, and in the UK and Ireland the whole championship is live on Sky Sports.
There is no play during the Christmas break from 24 to 27 December, and none on New Year’s Eve. Play resumes on Monday 28 December and runs through to the final.
Table of Contents
The key dates for the diary
For just over three weeks, Alexandra Palace becomes the centre of the darts world. This year the championship moves into the Great Hall for the first time, a bigger room that takes the total crowd across the tournament to around 180,000 people. The shape of the event is simple when you lay it out: a fast start before Christmas, a pause while the players go home, then a sprint through the rounds that matter most.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Friday 11 December 2026 | Opening day: the first matches of the championship |
| 24 to 27 December 2026 | Christmas break: no play |
| Monday 28 December 2026 | Play resumes after Christmas |
| Thursday 31 December 2026 | New Year’s Eve: no play |
| Sunday 3 January 2027 | The final |
Most days run with an afternoon session and an evening session. The exact session times, and who plays on which day, are only confirmed when the draw and the order of play are published in late November. Nothing here will be guessed in the meantime. This page will carry the full day-by-day running order as soon as it is official, so the honest answer on session times for now is: confirmed in late November.
How the tournament works
The format is as simple as elite sport gets. There are 128 players in one single-elimination bracket, and if you lose, you go home. There are no groups, no second chances and no hiding behind a good run of form earlier in the season. One poor night in December ends your championship, however well your year has gone.
That brutality is the point. The opening rounds move quickly, with the field halved again and again through the first week, and the matches grow longer the deeper the tournament goes, which is why the last few days feel so different from the first few. By the time the calendar turns, every remaining player knows each match is the biggest of his season, and the final on 3 January is played between the two men who survived all of it.
The setting adds its own pressure. Ally Pally crowds are famously loud and famously close to the action, and the Great Hall makes this the biggest stage the championship has ever had. Players talk about the walk-on here the way footballers talk about a cup final. It is the room everyone in darts wants to play in, and the room where nobody gets an easy night.
Prize money
The prize fund for 2026/27 is £5,000,000, and the champion takes home £1,000,000 of it. Numbers like that have changed what this tournament means. Winning at Alexandra Palace is no longer just the best night of a player’s career. It is the result that shapes his season, his ranking and everything that follows from it.
It also explains the tension in the early rounds. A first-round loser and a finalist are playing the same tournament in name, but the gap between what they leave with, in prize money and in standing, is enormous. Every round survived is worth real money, and you can see that knowledge on the players’ faces from the very first night.
The names to watch
Luke Littler comes back as defending champion, and that changes the temperature of the whole event. Everyone else in the draw is measured against him, every session he plays becomes the session neutrals most want to watch, and the question hanging over the three weeks is a simple one: who, if anyone, can stop him on the stage he now treats as home?
The strongest claim belongs to Luke Humphries, because he has done it before. Humphries beat Littler in the 2024 final, a match that reached 4.8 million viewers and became the biggest non-football audience Sky Sports has ever had. A repeat of that final would be the story of the sporting winter, and the draw in late November decides whether the bracket even allows it.
Beyond the top two, the honest answer is that this format manufactures heroes. With 128 players and no safety net, somebody outside the favourites always has the week of their life at Ally Pally, beating names they were never supposed to beat. Finding out who it is this year is half the fun of watching.
It is also the biggest field in the sport, which cuts both ways. The favourites have to survive more matches than at any other event, against opponents with nothing to lose and a crowd that loves an underdog. More matches mean more chances for something to go wrong, and that is precisely why the man holding the trophy on 3 January has earned it the hard way.
Watching on TV and online
In the UK and Ireland, Sky Sports shows the championship live, and there is no free-to-air live coverage. Viewers in the United States have Peacock with selected coverage, FanDuel TV Extra and PDC TV, the PDC’s own streaming service, while Australia is covered by Fox Sports and Kayo. Wherever you are reading from, the full picture sits in one place: where to watch the championship in your country lists every confirmed broadcaster, country by country.
Getting tickets
Being there is a different experience altogether. The Great Hall holds its crowd close, the noise rolls from the first walk-on to the last dart, and with around 180,000 tickets across the tournament this is the biggest Ally Pally championship there has ever been. Getting hold of one of those tickets, though, was harder this year than ever before.
Demand broke records, so for the first time the tickets were allocated through a ballot rather than a simple first-come sale, and the only safe way to buy is through the official PDC and Alexandra Palace channels. If you entered and missed out, or you are wondering what your options are now, how the ticket ballot worked explains the process and the safest next steps.
Questions fans ask
When does the World Darts Championship 2026/27 start?
It starts on Friday 11 December 2026 at Alexandra Palace in London. The championship then runs, with a break over Christmas and no play on New Year’s Eve, until the final on Sunday 3 January 2027.
Where is the championship held?
At Alexandra Palace, known to every darts fan as Ally Pally, in North London. For the first time, the darts is played in the venue’s Great Hall, its biggest room.
When is the final?
The final is on Sunday 3 January 2027, closing just over three weeks of darts that began on 11 December.
How can I watch it on TV?
In the UK and Ireland it is live on Sky Sports. In the United States, Peacock carries selected coverage, with FanDuel TV Extra and PDC TV also showing the championship. Australia has Fox Sports and Kayo, the Netherlands and the Nordics have Viaplay, and Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy have DAZN.
How do tickets work this year?
Because demand broke records, tickets were allocated through a ballot for the first time, with around 180,000 tickets across the tournament. Buy only through official PDC and Alexandra Palace channels, and avoid unofficial resale sites.
When is the draw?
The draw takes place in late November, and the day-by-day order of play is published with it. This page will be updated with the running order as soon as it is official.
Conclusion
One venue, 128 players, three weeks and a £1 million prize for the winner: the World Darts Championship is the winter’s best sporting story, and it starts on 11 December. StreamMatch will keep this page current from the draw in late November to the last dart of the final, so bookmark it and check back as the running order lands.
One Comment