World Matchplay Darts 2026: Littler's Record

World Matchplay Darts 2026 ended at Winter Gardens Blackpool on Sunday 26 July 2026, with Luke Littler beating Gerwyn Price 18-9 to retain the title. Littler averaged 111.04 across the World Matchplay, the highest winning tournament average in World Matchplay history. His 111.53 in the final is the highest average in a World Matchplay final, a separate record. Both finalists carry reserved places into the 48-player Grand Slam of Darts field in Wolverhampton.

The Grand Slam of Darts 2026 event page carries the November tournament this result feeds into. The expanded field is set out in the 48-player Grand Slam of Darts format guide.

Last updated: 16 September 2026

Who won World Matchplay Darts 2026?

Luke Littler retained the title, beating Gerwyn Price 18-9 in the final at Winter Gardens Blackpool on Sunday 26 July 2026. Littler averaged 111.53 across that final to Price's 104.97. The tournament ran across nine days, from Saturday 18 to Sunday 26 July 2026. It was promoted by the Professional Darts Corporation and shown live on Sky Sports.

The tournament has been staged at Winter Gardens Blackpool every year since 1994 apart from 2020, when it moved to the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. The 2026 field was 32 players: the top 16 from the PDC rankings, seeded, each drawn against one of the top 16 from the one-year ProTour rankings. The Women's World Matchplay ran alongside on 26 July 2026 at the same venue, in its fifth staging.

What did Luke Littler average, and whose record did he break?

Littler averaged 111.04 across the whole of the 2026 World Matchplay, the highest winning tournament average in World Matchplay history, beating Phil Taylor's mark from 2010. That is a tournament-long figure rather than a one-match spike: it covers all five of his matches in Blackpool, not one night. He opened the tournament at 109.53 and finished it at 111.53.

The final average is a separate record. Littler's 111.53 is the highest average in a World Matchplay final, beating Phil Taylor's previous mark from the 2013 final. The two are counted separately because one measures a single night and the other measures the whole tournament.

What is a three-dart average, and why is 111 a big number?

A three-dart average is the points a player scores divided by the darts thrown, multiplied by three. It is the standard measure of scoring across a match. Price averaged 104.97 in the 2026 final and lost it by nine legs. An average of 104.97 is strong on television, and it was still not enough.

How did Luke Littler reach the final?

Littler beat his first-round opponent 10-6, his second-round opponent 11-8, then won the quarter-final 16-7 and the semi-final 17-5 before the 18-9 final. His match averages ran 109.53, 113.68, 109.57, 110.88 and 111.53. The 113.68 in the second round is his highest single-match average at the World Matchplay, and the second-highest match average in World Matchplay history, behind Phil Taylor's 114.99 from 2010.

Littler opened his second-round win with a nine-dart finish, checking out 141 on double 15.

Eleven nine-dart finishes have been thrown across the tournament's history, the first by Phil Taylor in 2002.

How many 180s did Luke Littler hit?

Littler hit 66 180s across the 2026 World Matchplay, beating his own record set in 2025. 12 of those maximums came in the final. All 66 came across his five matches in Blackpool, where he averaged 111.04 across the World Matchplay as a whole.

Has anyone retained the World Matchplay before?

Yes. Littler is the fourth player to win back-to-back World Matchplay titles. The trophy he lifted is the Phil Taylor Trophy, named for Taylor from 2018. Taylor won the World Matchplay 16 times, and both average marks Littler passed in 2026 were his.

The 2026 men's prize fund was £1,000,000 in tournament prize money set by the Professional Darts Corporation, with £225,000 of that going to the winner.

By reaching the 2026 final Littler became the first player to pass £3,000,000 on the PDC ranking list. As at 16 September 2026 he had won five PDC major titles from Sky Sports' ten-event list in 2026. He also won the World Cup of Darts for England in June 2026, a pairs event for national teams that sits outside that number. His wider honours, including two World Championship titles, sit on Luke Littler's player profile.

Has Gerwyn Price ever won at Blackpool?

Gerwyn Price has never won the World Matchplay. He is a two-time runner-up, in 2026 and in 2022, and his route to the 2026 final ran 11-9, then 11-5, then 16-12 in the quarter-final, before a semi-final win. An average of 104.97 in a televised final is a serious night's darts.

Price is Welsh, born in Markham in Caerphilly in 1985, nicknamed "The Iceman", and a former professional rugby player who switched to darts. He has seven PDC singles majors: the World Series of Darts Finals in 2022, the World Championship in 2021, the Grand Slam of Darts in 2021, the World Grand Prix in 2020, the World Series of Darts Finals in 2020, and the Grand Slam of Darts in 2019 and 2018. He is fourth on the PDC Order of Merit.

Three of those seven are Grand Slam of Darts titles, which is the tournament the 2026 Blackpool result now points towards.

Why do World Matchplay scorelines run past the target number of legs?

Every match at the World Matchplay must be won by two clear legs, which is why a Blackpool scoreline can carry on past its nominal target. The World Matchplay is played in legs throughout, where the PDC World Darts Championship is played in sets, and the target climbs by round: first to 10 in round one, 11 in round two, 16 in the quarter-finals, 17 in the semi-finals and 18 in the final.

If the players reach 12-12, 13-13, 18-18, 19-19 or 20-20 by round, the leg that follows decides it. The number on the left of a Blackpool scoreline is the legs the winner took, not the halfway mark of a fixed-length match.

What is the Empress Ballroom like for a group?

Winter Gardens Blackpool publishes the Empress Ballroom by configuration rather than by crowd.

The reception or exhibition layout runs across 1,102 square metres of floor. None of those figures is the darts layout.

The Empress Ballroom becomes a darts room for the nine days of the 2026 World Matchplay, sitting inside the Winter Gardens Blackpool complex at 97 Church Street. Blackpool North station is about a ten minute walk away: Talbot Road towards the promenade, left onto Abingdon Street, then on to the Church Street entrance. The venue has no car park of its own.

Travel and parking detail for the venue sits on the Winter Gardens Blackpool venue page.

When is the November field settled?

The Grand Slam of Darts field is not complete until eight days before the first match. Up to 24 automatic places go to the winners and runners-up of PDC televised events across a 12-month window, with up to 12 further invited places, and the rest topped up from 2026 European Tour and Players Championship winners. The last eight come from a Tour Card Holder Qualifier with an entry deadline of Friday 6 November 2026.

For a host picking a night, that timing cuts both ways. The dates and the venue are fixed, so travel and diaries can be settled now, but the names on the board on any given day are not known until November.

What does the Blackpool result change for November in Wolverhampton?

Both finalists hold reserved places in the 48-player Grand Slam of Darts field, so Luke Littler and Gerwyn Price are both in Wolverhampton by right. The Grand Slam of Darts runs over nine days, from 14 to 22 November 2026, at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.

The dates and the field for November sit on the Grand Slam of Darts 2026 event page, and its history and past winners sit on the Grand Slam of Darts tournament page.