The Luke Littler effect has triggered a doubling of the first prize at the Darts World Championship to £1 million.
The winner of darts’ flagship tournament will now earn twice as much as the world champion in snooker amid a record increase in the money on offer across PDC tournaments, from £18 million to £25 million.
It follows Littler being crowned darts’ youngest ever world champion aged 17 in January, a year after he became the sport’s youngest finalist.
The World Championship will now see an expanded 128-strong field – up from 96 – competing for a £5 million prize fund.
The Premier League prize pot will increase to £1.25 million from 2026, with £350,000 for next season’s champion.
A £1 million prize fund will be on offer at the World Matchplay and Grand Slam of Darts, with the latter also expanding to a 48-player field next year to mark the 20th staging of the tournament.
Four other Premier events – the World Grand Prix, Players Championship Finals, European Championship and UK Open – will all increase to a £750,000 prize fund next year, with the World Cup of Darts and World Series of Darts Finals each adding a further £50,000 to their respective prize funds.
European Tour event prize funds will increase to £230,000 for the 14 tournaments to be held next year, while the 34 Players Championship events will rise to £150,000 each.
PDC chief executive Matt Porter said: “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.”
