Story by[BBC]Jonty Colman - BBC Sport journalistMon, December 8, 2025 at 11:58 AM UTC·7 min readThe 2026 PDC World Darts Championship gets under way on Thursday at Alexandra Palace in London. Recently-crowned world number one, teenager Luke Littler, is the defending champion after beating Michael van Gerwen in the 2025 final. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA record 128 players have entered this year's competition, an increase of 32 from last year's extravaganza - including a record five players from the Women's Series. Littler is one of nine previous winners to be playing in this year's competition, and will begin his defence on the opening night against Darius Labanauskas. When does the World Darts Championship start?Luke Littler became the youngest darts world champion, aged 17, in January after victory over Michael van Gerwen []The 2026 World Darts Championship gets under way on Thursday, 11 December with an evening session consisting of four first round matches. After that, every day will feature an afternoon and evening session with four matches in each. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThere is a three-day Christmas break from 24 to 26 December. After that point, there will be two sessions of play each day, but the matches in each session decrease in later rounds where there are fewer, but longer, matches. The last day of two sessions is Thursday, 1 January 2026. After that, both semi-finals will be played on Friday, 2 January in an evening session. The final takes place on Saturday, 3 January in the evening. Champion Littler starts Worlds against LabanauskasWorlds to stay at Alexandra Palace until 2031What is the draw and seedings?The top 32 ranked players were seeded for the tournament.