Top 5 Greatest World Darts Championship Moments

Author: Jack Guing, Last Updated: 17.12.2024

As from the 15th of December to the 3rd January, a huge tournament in Darts takes place to commence the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship. There has been many iconic moments over the years at the PDC World Darts Championship since it began in 1994. This list will be somewhat biased as it is my opinion at specific moments as opposed to great games so therefore matches such as John Part vs Phil Taylor from 2003 and Raymond Van Barneveld vs Phil Taylor from 2007 will not be on the list. Instead we will be looking at very specific moments that are memorable.

Honourable Mentions

Narrowing down the World Darts Championship moments to just 5 was not an easy feat so here are some honourable mentions;

Adrian Lewis 9 darter in the 2011 final - In the 2011 final Adrian Lewis achieved history becoming the first player to achieve a perfect leg in the World Darts Championship final. He would go on to beat Gary Anderson 7-5 in sets to lift his first World title.

Gary Anderson Phantom 180 - This is a memorable moment for me because of what followed. In the 2015 final versus Phil Taylor Anderson threw two darts in the treble 20 with his 3rd dart knocking them all to the ground and him scoring 0. Taylor would win the leg but Anderson would impressively win the set and later the match.

Price wearing ear defenders - Back in the 2023 tournament Gerwyn Price was annoyed with the treatment he was getting from the crowd in his quarter final clash with Gabriel Clemens so he came back on stage wearing ear defenders to drown out the crowd. He would go on to lose the game.

5️⃣ Phil Taylor’s Final Walk On

In 2018 Phil Taylor played his final ever PDC World Championship match as he took on the up and coming Rob Cross in the final, aiming for a 17th World title. The final would prove to be a passing of the torch moment with Cross putting in one of the best final performances and dismantling Taylor 7-2. An iconic moment came before the match even started with John MacDonald’s final introduction of Phil Taylor as the ‘record breaking, history making, 16 time champion of the world” followed by Taylor’s final walk on where he signed autographs and struggled to take a selfie.

4️⃣ Fallon Sherrock makes history

In 2019, Sherrock became the first female player to win a match, followed by another at the PDC World Championships, first by beating Ted Evetts 3-2 in the first round, and then Mensur Suljovic 3-1 in the second round, before eventually losing 2-4 to Chris Dobey in the third round.

3️⃣ Peter Gets it Wright

Coming into the 2020 World Darts Championship final Peter Wright had lost many major finals versus Michael Van Gerwen including missing multiple match winning darts on multiple occasions against Van Gerwen in big finals. Wright finally got the job done in the biggest final of them all defeating Van Gerwen 7-4 in what was an emotional win for the then 49 year old Scotsman.

2️⃣ 17 Perfect Darts

Michael Van Gerwen really announced himself to the darting world in the 2013 semi final versus James Wade with an amazing 17 perfect darts. He achieved perfection with a 9 darter but then in the following leg hit another 8 perfect darts missing double 12 for back to back 9 darters, which has never been done.

1️⃣​ Greatest Leg of Darts Ever

For me the greatest moment in the history of the World Darts Championship came in the 2023 final between Michael Smith and Michael Van Gerwen. The leg is widely considered to be the best ever with Van Gerwen and Smith both being on 9 darters at the same time, with Van Gerwen missing double 12 while Smith hit double 12 to achieve perfection in the final. The commentary of Wayne Mardle really added to the moment with lines such as “Michael may miss and Michael may hit”, followed by the iconic “I can’t spake”, making this moment even more memorable.

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