World Matchplay prize money
The PDC paid £1.0m to the 32 players at the 2026 World Matchplay, nine days at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, played in legs rather than sets. Winning it was worth £225,000, and the smallest payment at the event was £12,500.
A player is paid once, for where the run ended. The band is the whole of it rather than a step on the way to it, so a player who lost in the semi-finals collected £65,000 and not that plus every band beneath it. Read as single payments the six bands come to £1,000,000, which is the pot. Read as a ladder they do not: the champion alone would take £485,000, against the £225,000 Luke Littler was actually paid for the title.
What each finishing place paid
The six bands the 32 players are divided into
| FINISHING PLACE | PLAYERS | EACH | THE BAND |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1 | £225,000 | £225,000 |
| Runner-up | 1 | £125,000 | £125,000 |
| Semi-finalists | 2 | £65,000 | £130,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | 4 | £35,000 | £140,000 |
| Last 16 | 8 | £22,500 | £180,000 |
| Last 32 | 16 | £12,500 | £200,000 |
| The whole pot | 32 | — | £1,000,000£1.0m |
What each band took between them
How far each band got
Winning it paid 18 times what the last 32 band paid. Inside a band nothing separates one player from another: the sixteen players who lost the first match were all paid £12,500, whether they lost by a leg or by a mile.
The money does not stack
What the champion took, and what a ladder would have paid
This is the one thing about darts money that is worth getting right, because every other prize fund on this site works the other way. A club in the Champions League is paid for reaching the last sixteen and paid again for reaching the last eight, and the run is worth the sum of them. In darts there is no sum: a player is paid for where the run ended and for nothing before it. Multiply each band by the players in it and the total is £1,000,000, which is what the PDC put up. Add the bands the other way and the champion alone takes £485,000.
Who collected it
Every one of the 32 players, and what the finish was worth
| PLAYER | BAND | PAID |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Littler | Winner | £225,000 |
| Gerwyn Price | Runner-up | £125,000 |
| Dirk van Duijvenbode | Semi-finalists | £65,000 |
| Gian van Veen | Semi-finalists | £65,000 |
| Gary Anderson | Quarter-finalists | £35,000 |
| James Wade | Quarter-finalists | £35,000 |
| Josh Rock | Quarter-finalists | £35,000 |
| Ross Smith | Quarter-finalists | £35,000 |
| Cameron Menzies | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Jonny Clayton | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Michael van Gerwen | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Nathan Aspinall | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Rob Cross | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Ryan Searle | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Stephen Bunting | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Wessel Nijman | Last 16 | £22,500 |
| Andrew Gilding | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Chris Dobey | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Damon Heta | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Danny Noppert | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Dave Chisnall | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Jermaine Wattimena | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Joe Cullen | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Kevin Doets | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Krzysztof Ratajski | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Luke Humphries | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Luke Woodhouse | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Martin Schindler | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Niels Zonneveld | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Niko Springer | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Ryan Joyce | Last 32 | £12,500 |
| William O'Connor | Last 32 | £12,500 |
Luke Littler was paid £225,000 for winning it rather than that on top of every band beneath, which is what makes the six bands add up to £1,000,000, the whole of what the PDC put up.
Around this on the darts calendar
What else was played either side of it
| EVENT | CHAMPION | PLAYERS | THE POT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Darts Masters 2025 | Luke Littler | 16 | £100,000 |
| Bahrain Darts Masters 2025 | Stephen Bunting | 16 | £100,000 |
| Dutch Darts Masters 2025 | Rob Cross | 16 | £100,000 |
| New Zealand Darts Masters 2025 | Luke Littler | 16 | £100,000 |
| Nordic Darts Masters 2025 | Stephen Bunting | 16 | £100,000 |
| Poland Darts Masters 2025 | Gerwyn Price | 16 | £100,000 |
| US Darts Masters 2025 | Luke Humphries | 16 | £100,000 |
| Women's World Matchplay 2025 | Lisa Ashton | 8 | £25,000 |
| PDC World Championship 2026 | Luke Littler | 128 | £5,000,000£5.0m |
| Premier League Darts 2026 | Luke Littler | 8 | £1,250,000£1.3m |
| UK Open 2026 | Luke Littler | 160 | £750,000 |
| PDC World Masters 2026 | Luke Littler | 88 | £500,000 |
| Austrian Darts Open 2026 | Josh Rock | 48 | £230,000 |
| Baltic Sea Darts Open 2026 | Luke Woodhouse | 48 | £230,000 |
| Belgian Darts Open 2026 | Luke Humphries | 48 | £230,000 |
| Czech Darts Open 2026 | Luke Littler | 48 | £230,000 |
| European Darts Grand Prix 2026 | Gerwyn Price | 48 | £230,000 |
| European Darts Open 2026 | Krzysztof Ratajski | 48 | £230,000 |
| European Darts Trophy 2026 | Wessel Nijman | 48 | £230,000 |
| German Darts Grand Prix 2026 | Nathan Aspinall | 48 | £230,000 |
The 20 events on this site played closest in time to this one, oldest first. Together with the 2026 World Matchplay they paid out £11,065,000.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the 2026 World Matchplay winner get?
£225,000, and Luke Littler is who collected it. It is the whole of what the champion was paid: there is no separate payment for each round on the way to it.
What was the World Matchplay prize money in 2026?
£1,000,000 across the 32 players. It is split into six bands by finishing place, from £225,000 down to £12,500, and the bands add up to the pot exactly.
What is the smallest payment at the World Matchplay?
£12,500. That is the last 32 band, which covers sixteen players who lost the first match. No player at the 2026 event collected less.
Does World Matchplay prize money add up round by round?
No. A player is paid once, for where the run ended, and the band is the whole of it. A player who lost in the semi-finals collected £65,000 and not that plus every band beneath it. Add the six bands up as single payments and they come to £1,000,000, which is the pot; add them as a ladder and the champion alone would take £485,000.
Which band pays out the most at the World Matchplay?
Winner, at £225,000. Nobody else at the event is paid more in one payment.
Where to next
The rest of the darts money
Luke Littler took £225,000 here and £4,119,250 in all. World Matchplay prize money puts this edition beside the other 11 we hold. For the other tournaments, see PDC World Championship prize money, Grand Slam of Darts prize money, Players Championship Finals prize money, World Grand Prix prize money, European Championship prize money, UK Open prize money, World Series of Darts Finals prize money, Masters prize money, International Darts Open prize money, Austrian Darts Open prize money, European Darts Grand Prix prize money, German Darts Championship prize money, Premier League Darts prize money, European Darts Open prize money, German Darts Grand Prix prize money, Czech Darts Open prize money, PDC World Masters prize money, Gibraltar Darts Trophy prize money, European Darts Trophy prize money, Belgian Darts Open prize money, Baltic Sea Darts Open prize money, Hungarian Darts Trophy prize money, Dutch Darts Masters (European Tour) prize money, European Darts Matchplay prize money, Dutch Darts Championship prize money, US Darts Masters prize money, New Zealand Darts Masters prize money, Nordic Darts Masters prize money, German Darts Open prize money, German Darts Masters (European Tour) prize money, Flanders Darts Trophy prize money, Swiss Darts Trophy prize money, Bahrain Darts Masters prize money, Danish Darts Open prize money, Australian Darts Masters prize money, Poland Darts Open prize money, Slovak Darts Open prize money, Dutch Darts Masters prize money, Poland Darts Masters prize money, German Darts Masters prize money, Melbourne Darts Masters prize money, Austrian Darts Championship prize money, Belgian Darts Championship prize money, Auckland Darts Masters prize money, Brisbane Darts Masters prize money, New South Wales Darts Masters prize money, Shanghai Darts Masters prize money, Saudi Arabia Darts Masters prize money, Women's World Matchplay prize money, Perth Darts Masters prize money, Queensland Darts Masters prize money and Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters prize money. Darts prize money ranks all 793 players across the £91,450,000 the 268 events paid out. Where a competition pays again at every round rather than once at the end, see Champions League prize money, and for the shape darts shares with football at national level, World Cup prize money.