2022 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2022 PDC World Darts Championship will be the 29th World Darts Championship to be organised by the Professional Darts Corporation; and the fifteenth to be held at Alexandra Palace, London. It will be held between 15 December 2021 and 3 January 2022, the culmination of the 2021 Professional Darts Corporation season.[1] 96 players will compete in the championship, with the thirty-two highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded to the second round, and the next thirty-two highest ranked players from the 2021 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit and thirty-two players from the various qualifiers going into the first round.[3]

2021 PDC World Darts Championship winner Gerwyn Price, who since winning has also won the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts, will be top of the two-year PDC Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament. 2020 World Champion Peter Wright, the winner of the 2021 World Matchplay and part of the victorious Scotland team at the 2021 PDC World Cup of Darts, will be second seed and Michael van Gerwen, the three-time World Champion from 2014, 2017 and 2019, will be third seed. As well as Price, Wright and Van Gerwen, two other previous PDC world champions will qualify as seeds; 2015 and 2016 and 2021 runner-up Gary Anderson will be 6th seeded, and 2018 World Champion and 2021 European Champion Rob Cross will be 11th seed. Two former champions of the BDO World Darts Championship qualified as seeds; three-time BDO champion Glen Durrant will be the 21st seed with 2014 BDO champion Stephen Bunting in 15th.[3]

The top seeds behind Price, Wright and Van Gerwen will be 2021 UK Open champion James Wade, 2020 World Matchplay winner Dimitri Van den Bergh, Gary Anderson, 2020 Grand Slam of Darts winner José de Sousa and 2021 Masters, Premier League, World Series Finals and World Grand Prix champion Jonny Clayton.[3]

Callan Rydz, a two-time event winner on the 2021 PDC Pro Tour, will be the highest-ranked non-seed on the 2021 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit. 2007 World Champion Raymond van Barneveld will return as a Pro Tour qualifier, having announced his retirement following a first-round exit at the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship and then reversed his decision after a year out. Van Barneveld will be one of two former PDC World Champions to qualify via the Pro Tour, with 2011 and 2012 winner Adrian Lewis also qualifying. The highest-ranked debutant via the Pro Tour will be Scott Mitchell, the 2015 BDO World Champion. As well as Mitchell and four-time BDO World Champion Van Barneveld, 1996 BDO champion Steve Beaton will also qualify via the Pro Tour.[3] Beaton will be making a record 31st consecutive World Championship appearance.[4]

As well as Mitchell, other players qualifying for their PDC World Championship debuts will be Alan Soutar, Jason Heaver, William Borland, Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, Lewy Williams, Florian Hempel and Chas Barstow. Martijn Kleermaker is set to play for the first time, having withdrawn from the 2021 tournament following a positive COVID-19 test. Other players qualifying via the Pro Tour include the 2021 World Youth Champion Ted Evetts and 2021 PDC World Cup of Darts finalist Rowby-John Rodriguez, who along with his brother Rusty-Jake will be the fourth pair of siblings to compete in the same World Championship.[4]

The final group of 32 qualifiers were determined by a series of international qualifiers and secondary tours. The PDC Development and Challenge Tours were split into UK and EU sections this year, meaning that an extra qualification spot was available via the Challenge Tour. The PDC Asian Tour was not held for a second consecutive year, with one-off qualification tournaments being held to replace it. The two Australian qualification spots were taken by Raymond Smith and Ky Smith, the first father-and-son to play in the same PDC World Darts Championship.[4] Paul Lim qualified via the Singapore qualifier, becoming at age 67 and 326 days the oldest player to compete in the World Championship; while Fabian Schmutzler, who qualified via the Development Tour, was the second-youngest player ever to compete in the World Championship.[4]

Four-time BDO Women's World Champion Lisa Ashton qualified via the PDC Women's Tour, alongside Fallon Sherrock, the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finalist and only woman to have previously won a match at the PDC World Darts Championship.[5] The final three places were awarded to the winners of a qualification tournament for PDPA members, with the winners being Nick Kenny, Boris Krčmar and James Wilson.[6]

Three of the international qualifiers withdrew following the draw, that being Charles Losper and Lihao Wen, due to visa issues, and potential debutant Juan Rodriguez, following a positive test for COVID-19. They were replaced by runners-up from the PDPA qualifier in Order of Merit order, Mike De Decker[7], Gordon Mathers[8] and Peter Hudson[9].

Debutants via the international and invitation qualifiers will be Roman Benecký, Chris Landman, John Norman Jnr, Fabian Schmutzler, Toyokazu Shibata, Ky Smith and Jim Williams.

All matches will be played as single in, double out; requiring the players to score 501 points to win a leg, finishing on either a double or the bullseye. Matches will be played to set format, with each set being the best of five legs (first to three). After a one-year break, the tie-break rule came back into force.[26] For all rounds except the first, the final set has to be won by two clear legs, unless the set score will go to 5–5, in which case a sudden-death leg will be played. This year, there would be no throw for the bull in any sudden-death legs.

The matches get longer as the tournament progresses:

The prize money for the tournament will once again be £2,500,000 in total – the same as the previous year. The winner's share will again be £500,000.[27]