2017 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2017 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2016/17 William Hill World Darts Championship) was the twenty-fourth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2016 to 2 January 2017.

Phil Taylor made a twenty-eighth successive appearance at a World Championship (including the BDO version), equalling the record of John Lowe.

For the first time in the history of the World Darts Championship (PDC and BDO), no Englishman progressed to the semi-finals. It was also the first time since 2009 that the final was contested by the top 2 seeds.

Michael van Gerwen set a new record for the highest World Darts Championship 3-dart average (114.05) in his semi-final victory over Raymond van Barneveld, breaking a 15-year record that had been held by Phil Taylor since 2002 (111.21); Van Barneveld himself set a new record for the highest losing 3-dart average (109.34) in the same tie, just 5 days after Cristo Reyes had broken the record in his second-round match (106.07), also against Van Gerwen.

Van Gerwen won his second World Championship title by defeating two-times defending champion Gary Anderson 7–3 in the final. The match also featured 42 180s, which is a record for a match commissioned by the Professional Darts Cooperation.

The field consisted of 72 players, including 16 in a preliminary round. Therefore, 64 players were entered into Round 1. The schedule was announced on 15 July 2016.

The 72 players consist of:

The prize money was £1,650,000 in total. The winner's prize money was increased from £300,000 to £350,000. Prize money for a nine-dart finish was originally set at £5,000, but the PDC increased it to £25,000 due to 'the stature of the tournament', though none were thrown.