As has been the case in 31 of its previous 32 editions, the 2026 World Matchplay is being staged at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.
A 32-strong field qualified for the tournament, with the top 16 players from the two-year PDC World Rankings gaining automatic entry. The remaining places were allocated based on results at PDC Tour Pro meetings over the past 12 months, with invites sent to the top 16 performing players who hadn’t already qualified via their PDC World Ranking.
Luke Littler was awarded £800,000 for winning last year’s World Matchplay, after he recorded an 18-13 triumph over 2007 winner James Wade in the final. The teenage sensation is expected to successfully defend his title, although the likes of Luke Humphries, Wessel Nijman, and Gerwyn Price will be hoping to cause an upset.
A brief timeline
When Larry Butler was crowned the inaugural World Matchplay champion in 1994, the tournament’s total prize pot sat at a modest £42,400. The American archer received £10,000 for his endeavours, while runner-up Dennis Priestley added a further £6k to the £16k he earned for winning the World Championships seven months earlier.
Priestley would also lose the next two finals, but at least benefited from a minor bump in prize money in 1996. Although there were no colossal increases within the first decade of its establishment, the World Matchplay’s reward scheme slowly became more lucrative as the years went by.
By the time Phil Taylor won the competition for a seventh occasion in 2004, the purse had risen to £100,000 and was therefore more than twice the amount distributed to Butler and his peers at the conclusion of that opening edition. Three years later, James Wade became the first champion to pocket £50,000 when he hammered Terry Jenkins in a one-sided final.
The Power then stamped his authority all over the Winter Gardens, securing an eye-watering seven consecutive World Matchplay titles between 2008 and 2014. All but one of these triumphs procured a £100k fee, as the overall kitty suddenly doubled in size from £200,000 to £400,000.
Having lost to Taylor in the 2014 showpiece, Michael van Gerwen proceeded to win the next two editions of the tournament. Although the purse had risen to £450,000 by this point, the champion’s cut remained at £100,000 until just after the Dutchman’s back-to-back success.
A surge in the sport’s popularity helped to fuel another prize money boost towards the latter stages of the 2010s, with participants sharing a £700,000 bounty by 2019. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic may have caused considerable economic disruption elsewhere, but it didn’t do anything to negatively impact the World Matchplay’s prize pot. However, the introduction of social distancing measures did result in the tournament being held outside of Blackpool for the first and only time, with the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes assuming hosting duties in 2020.
The latest increase before this year’s unprecedented boost came in 2022, when an £800,000 treasure trove was confirmed. Each winner for the next three years was handed a £200,000 pay cheque, exactly 20 times the amount given to Larry Butler for lifting the first-ever World Matchplay title.
What is this year’s purse?
Back in March of last year, the PDC announced that prize money volumes across the entire professional circuit would experience a substantial uplift from 2026. The world’s best darts players are now competing for a piece of a £25m pie, a staggering £7m rise on what was available in 2025.
Every single major has received a cash injection, but the decision to award £1m to the winner of the PDC World Championships has unsurprisingly stolen the headlines. Reigning world champion Luke Littler won’t earn quite as much if he retains the Phil Taylor trophy next Sunday, but he would still be very well compensated.
Incidentally, the overall prize fund for the 2026 World Matchplay stands at £1m, with the winner picking up a cool £225,000 for nine days’ work. Although this equates to a slight drop in the champion’s share from 25% to 22.5% of the total pot, they still receive an additional £25,000 versus those who won the tournament over the past four years.
The runner-up is set to acquire £125,000, while the two losing semi-finalists will be given just under half of that fee. Prize money allocations then continue on a descending scale down to those eliminated in the first round, who are awarded a stipend of £12,500.
The Women’s World Matchplay has also witnessed a sizeable prize money increase, the first change to its reward structure since the tournament’s inception in 2022. The first four editions all offered a £25,000 prize pot, with the winner and runner-up taking home £10,000 and £5,000 respectively. There is now £40,000 available, enabling the champion to earn an extra £5,000 for their efforts. After suffering defeats in each of the last two finals, Fallon Sherrock would be furnished with £8,000 if she completes an unlucky treble.
It's perhaps worth noting that the ‘main’ World Matchplay is a mixed-gender competition, so women are permitted to compete in either event (but not both).
World Matchplay 2026 prize money
Please find the full prize money breakdown for this year’s events below:
World Matchplay
Winner: £250,000
Runner-up: £125,000
Semi-finalists: £65,000
Quarter-finalists: £35,000
Second round: £22,500
First round: £12,500
Women’s World Matchplay
Winner: £15,000
Runner-up: £8,000
Semi-finalists: £4,500
Quarter-finalists: £2,000
Previous champions and earnings
Here’s the full list of past World Matchplay winners and their cash reward (value of overall prize pot in brackets):
2025: Luke Littler: £200,000 (£800,000)
2024: Luke Humphries: £200,000 (£800,000)
2023: Nathan Aspinall: £200,000 (£800,000)
2022: Michael van Gerwen: £200,000 (£800,000)
2021: Peter Wright: £150,000 (£700,000)
2020: Dimitri Van den Bergh: £150,000 (£700,000)
2019: Rob Cross: £150,000 (£700,000)
2018: Gary Anderson: £115,000 (£500,000)
2017: Phil Taylor: £115,000 (£500,000)
2016: Michael van Gerwen: £100,000 (£450,000)
2015: Michael van Gerwen: £100,000 (£450,000)
2014: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£450,000)
2013: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£400,000)
2012: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£400,000)
2011: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£400,000)
2010: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£400,000)
2009: Phil Taylor: £100,000 (£400,000)
2008: Phil Taylor: £60,000 (£300,000)
2007: James Wade: £50,000 (£200,000)
2006: Phil Taylor: £30,000 (£150,000)
2005: Colin Lloyd: £25,000 (£120,000)
2004: Phil Taylor: £20,000 (£100,000)
2003: Phil Taylor: £15,000 (£80,000)
2002: Phil Taylor: £15,000 (£75,500)
2001: Phil Taylor: £14,000 (£65,000)
2000: Phil Taylor: £14,000 (£58,000)
1999: Rod Harrington: £14,000 (£58,000)
1998: Rod Harrington: £14,000 (£58,000)
1997: Phil Taylor: £12,000 (£46,000)
1996: Peter Evison: £12,000 (£46,000)
1995: Phil Taylor: £10,000 (£42,400)
1994: Larry Butler: £10,000 (£42,400)