The year 2026 is the 35th year in the history of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), a darts organisation based in the United Kingdom.
PDC in 2026 Increases to prize money and tournament sizes On 31 March 2025, the PDC announced a mass increase in prize money for tournaments, starting from the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship, where the champion receives a doubled top prize of £1,000,000 from a total prize fund of £5,000,000. The total amount of prize money on offer in PDC events in 2026 went up £7,000,000 from the 2025 season, along with increases for the PDC's secondary tours and Global Affiliate Tours, with only the World Series events and the World Masters not receiving increases in prize money. The field for the World Championship also expanded from 96 to 128 players, while the Grand Slam of Darts will expand from 32 to 48 players.
+ Prize money changes between the 2026 and 2025 PDC seasons (£1000s) Tournament Year Total Winner Finalist Top 4 Top 8 Top 16 Top 32 Top 48 Top 64 Top 96 Top 128Televised tournaments 2026 750 120 60 35 20 12.5 7.5 3 2 1.252025 600 110 50 30 15 10 5 2.5 1.5 1 2026 1,250 350 170 110 95–80 colspan=9 2025 1,000 275 125 85 75–60 colspan=9 per pair2026 500 100 48 30 20 10 6 5 colspan=6 2025 450 80 50 30 20 9 5 4 2026 1,000 225 125 65 35 22.5 12.5 colspan=6 2025 800 200 100 50 30 15 10 colspan=7 2026 40 15 8 4.5 2 colspan=9 2025 25 10 5 2.5 1.25 colspan=9 2026 450 100 60 30 17.5 10 5 colspan=7 2025 400 80 40 25 17.5 10 5 colspan=7 2026 750 150 80 50 35 20 7.5 colspan=7 2025 600 120 60 40 25 15 7.5 colspan=7 2026 750 150 80 50 35 20 7.5 colspan=7 2025 600 120 60 40 25 15 7.5 colspan=7 2026 1,000 200 100 60 35 20 12.5 5 colspan=6 2025 650 150 70 50 25 12 5 colspan=7 2026 750 130 70 40 27.5 15 7 4 colspan=5 2025 600 120 60 30 20 10 6.5 3 colspan=5 (15 in 2026, 14 in 2025)2026 230 35 15 10 8 5 3.5 2 colspan=5 2025 175 30 12 8.5 6 4 2.5 1.25 colspan=6 Floor tournaments 2026 150 15 10 6.5 4 3 2 1.25 colspan=5 2025 125 15 10 5 3.5 2.5 1.5 1.0 colspan=5 2026 100 15 7 3.4 2 1.5 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.22025 100 12 6 3 2 1.5 1 0.6 0.4 0.2 and 2026 20 3 2 1 0.75 0.35 0.25 0.1 colspan=5 2025 15 2.5 1 0.75 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.075 colspan=5 2026 15 2.5 1 0.75 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.075 colspan=5 2025 10 2 1 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.05 colspan=5
Changes to Q-School On each day of the Final Stage of Q-School, a Tour Card is awarded to both finalists, rather than just to the day's tournament winner as in previous years. As before, remaining Tour Card places are awarded through the Q-School Order of Merit. As before, players who qualify on the first three days of the Final Stage do not need to play the remaining days. However, each day of the Final Stage will be topped up to 128 players with the best available players who failed to qualify from the First Stage, rather than byes being awarded.
Changes to qualification criteria for events Several events had tweaks to their qualification criteria. European Tour seeding changed so that reserve players no longer take a seeded player's position in the draw. It was originally announced that seeding in first round matches would be based on the full Order of Merit rather than the Pro Tour Order of Merit, but this rule change was reverted before the first event. Additionally, it was announced that players would be chosen for World Cup teams based on their Challenge Tour Ranking if a nation has no players ranked on the Order of Merit and no local Affiliate Tour. Tour Card holders ranked inside the top 64 who failed to qualify for the World Championship by the main or Pro Tour Orders of Merit have been re-permitted to enter regional qualifying tournaments, while World Youth Championship finalists will qualify for the newly-expanded Grand Slam of Darts in the same year, rather than in the next.
New event locations The 2026 Premier League Darts schedule was announced in September 2025 and included a night in Belgium for the first time, as Antwerp replaced Exeter in the lineup. The 2026 European Tour saw the introduction of two new events: the Poland Darts Open in Kraków and the Slovak Darts Open in Bratislava. The Poland Darts Open replaced the Poland Darts Masters, a World Series event that was on the PDC calendar since 2023, while the Slovak Darts Open marked the PDC's first visit to Slovakia.
As part of the 2026 World Series of Darts, it was announced that the PDC would hold its first event in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters, in January. The announcement followed interest shown by PDC president Barry Hearn and General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh to take darts to the country.
In December 2025, it was confirmed that the 2026 PDC World Championship would be the last edition of the tournament to be held in the West Hall of Alexandra Palace. The event will be held in the venue's Great Hall for the first time at the 2027 PDC World Championship.
Television deals In February 2025, Sky Sports announced a five-year extension of its partnership with the PDC, continuing coverage of the PDC World Darts Championship, Premier League Darts, World Matchplay, Grand Slam of Darts, World Grand Prix, and the World Cup of Darts on the broadcaster until 2030.
In October 2025, the PDC agreed to a new three-year deal with ITV Sport to broadcast events on ITV4 and ITVX until 2028; these events included the World Masters, UK Open, European Championship, Players Championship Finals, World Series Finals, and all global World Series events. The announcement also stated that the PDC would take control of its own event production, which was previously managed by ITV.
In June 2026, the PDC announced a deal with ESPN to broadcast five events on ESPN2 and ESPN+ in the United States. These events were the US Darts Masters, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts, and the 2027 World Championship.
Affiliate Tour expansion In December 2025, the PDC announced a three-year funding cycle for PDC Global Affiliate Tours that involved an investment of over £3,000,000. There will be increased prize money for events on the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour and the DartPlayers New Zealand Tour, while the China Pro Tour and Australian Darts Association Tour will have more events. Additionally, the African Continental Tour will expand to six events in each of the North and South regions, with an increase in the number of African qualifiers for the World Championship from one to two in 2027.
Televised events The following televised events are scheduled to take place in 2026.
Ranked The events listed in the table are ranked tournaments that contribute to a player's ranking on the PDC Order of Merit.
DateEventVenueChampionScoreRunner-up11 December 2025 – 3 January 2026World ChampionshipAlexandra Palace, London, England 28 January – 1 February 2026World MastersArena MK, Milton Keynes, England6–8 March 2026UK OpenButlin's Resort, Minehead, England 18–26 July 2026World MatchplayWinter Gardens, Blackpool, England 28 September – 4 October 2026World Grand PrixMattioli Arena, Leicester, England 22–25 October 2026European ChampionshipWestfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany14–22 November 2026Grand SlamWV Active Aldersley, Wolverhampton, England27–29 November 2026Players Championship FinalsButlin's Resort, Minehead, England
Non-ranked The events listed in these tables are non-ranked invitational tournaments.
DateEventVenueChampionScoreRunner-up5 February – 28 MayPremier LeagueThe O2 Arena, London, England11–10 11– 14 JuneWorld CupEissporthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (Luke Littler and Luke Humphries)(Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen) 17–20 SeptemberWorld Series FinalsAFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
World Series of Darts
The 2026 World Series of Darts is a series of invitational darts tournaments organised by the PDC, consisting of six events that will be held across four continents.
No.DateEventVenueChampionScoreRunner-up115–16 JanuaryBahrain MastersExhibition World Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain 219–20 JanuarySaudi Arabia MastersGlobal Theatre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 35–6 JuneNordic MastersForum Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 425–26 JuneUS MastersMadison Square Garden, New York City, United States 514–15 AugustSpark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand 621–22 AugustAustralian MastersWIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong, Australia
Pro Tour
The 2026 PDC Pro Tour is a series of darts tournaments organised by the PDC, consisting of 34 Players Championship events and 15 European Tour events.
Tour cards
The 2026 PDC Tour Cards were awarded to: (64) The top 64 players from the PDC Order of Merit after the 2025 World Championship. (28) 28 qualifiers from 2024 Q-School not ranked in the top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit following the World Championship. (1) The highest qualifier from the 2024 Development Tour (Sebastian Białecki) Niko Springer, who also earned a Tour Card through the 2024 Development Tour, entered the top 64 in his first year on tour. Therefore, one extra Tour Card was awarded to a 2026 Q-School qualifier. (2) Two highest qualifiers from the 2024 Challenge Tour (Wesley Plaisier and Christian Kist) (2) Highest qualifiers from the 2025 Development Tour (Beau Greaves and Owen Bates). (2) Highest qualifiers from the 2025 Challenge Tour (Stefan Bellmont and Darius Labanauskas). (16) The daily top two players from the 2026 Q-Schools.
Afterwards, the playing field was complemented by the highest qualified players from the Q-School Order of Merit until the maximum number of 128 Pro Tour Card players was reached.
Q-School
The players below earned PDC Tour Cards at UK Q-School in Milton Keynes and European Q-School in Kalkar.
8 January 9 January 10 January 11 JanuaryUK Q-SchoolEuropean Q-School
At the end of the fourth day in the Final Stage, the following players picked up Tour Cards through the Orders of Merit:
UK Q-School Order of Merit
European Q-School Order of Merit
Secondary tours
The 2026 PDC secondary tours are series of darts tournaments organised by the PDC that operate outside of the main PDC Pro Tour and predominantly feature players without a Tour Card. There are three secondary tours: the Challenge Tour (for players who unsuccessfully participated in the 2026 Q-School), Development Tour (for players aged 16 to 24) and Women's Series (for female players).
Global Affiliate Tours The PDC Global Affiliate Tours are a series of regional darts competitions organised by the PDC in collaboration with various local darts organisations around the world.
Asian Tour The PDC Asian Tour is the PDC Global Affiliate Tour for players from Asia. The 2026 calendar consists of 28 tournaments held over seven weekends.
No. Date Venue Winner Legs Runner-up 1 24 January Le Méridien Hotel and Conference Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 5 – 4 2 24 January 5 – 1 3 25 January 5 – 3 4 25 January 5 – 4 5 4 April Twin Messe, Shizuoka, Japan 5 – 3 6 4 April 5 – 4 7 5 April 5 – 4 8 5 April 5 – 0 9 2 May Raintree Club Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5 – 3 10 2 May 5 – 3 11 3 May 5 – 1 12 3 May 5 – 3 13 16 May Triple Event Hall, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 5 – 4 14 16 May5 – 1 15 17 May 5 – 4 16 17 May5 – 0 17 11 July Forest5 Darts Cafe, Singapore 5 – 2 18 11 July 5 – 1 19 12 July 5 – 1 20 12 July 5 – 4 21 1 August Winford Resort and Casino, Manila, Philippines 5 – 3 22 1 August 5 – 0 23 2 August 5 – 4 24 2 August 5 – 1 25 12 September New Century Resort Changjiang, China 5 – 1 26 12 September 5 – 3 27 13 September 5 – 2 28 13 September 5 – 3
Asian Championship Following the final four Asian Tour events, the PDC Asian Championship was contested on 14 September in Changjiang, Hainan, China. The tournament featured 64 players, and the top 16 players in the 2026 Asian Tour rankings were seeded. The winner Paolo Nebrida qualified for the 2026 Grand Slam of Darts and together with Finalist Kam Weng Cheng for the 2027 PDC World Darts Championship.
Championship Darts Circuit (CDC)