Phil Taylor made a 28th 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 7–3 in the final.[1][2] The match also featured 42 180s, which is a record for a match commissioned by the Professional Darts Cooperation.
Format
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.[3]
The 72 players consist of:
Top 32 players in the PDC Main Order of Merit
Top 16 Pro Tour Order of Merit players
Top 4 European players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit
16 International qualifiers
4 PDPA qualifiers
Prize money
The prize money was £1,650,000 in total. The winner's prize money was increased from £300,000 to £350,000.[4] Prize money for a nine-dart finish was originally set at £5,000, but the PDC increased it to £25,000 due to 'the stature of the tournament', though none were thrown.[5]
1^Kyle Anderson, who would have been the 28th seed, withdrew from the tournament after being unable to secure a British visa. As a result, Cristo Reyes moved into the top 32 seeds, and 2004 runner-up Kevin Painter qualified through the Pro Tour.[12]
* The highest average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
** The highest losing average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
*** The highest losing average in the final of a PDC World Championship.
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-two countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship.
ENG
NED
SCO
WAL
BEL
AUS
AUT
NIR
GER
SPA
RSA
IRL
SWE
GRE
FIN
MAL
CAN
CHN
JPN
NZL
PHI
RUS
Total
Final
–
1
1
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
2
Semis
–
2
2
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
4
Quarters
3
2
2
–
–
–
–
1
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
8
Round 3
7
4
2
1
1
–
–
1
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
16
Round 2
15
4
3
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
32
Round 1
26
10
4
4
3
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
–
–
–
–
–
–
64
Prelim.
3
1
–
–
–
2
1
–
1
–
–
–
–
–
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
16
Total
28
10
4
4
3
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
72
Media coverage
The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels: