World Darts Championships BDO and PDC Winners: Here is every winner since the first event in 1978

This week sees the return of darts to London’s Alexandra Palace, as the world’s best throwers take to the oche for the World Darts Championships.

The New Year-spanning competition is the most sought after trophy in world darts.

This year’s tournament is the 31st organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), but until 2020 there were two competing world championships.

The British Darts Organisation (BDO) championships was the original, starting in 1978 and making stars of players such as Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Phil Taylor and John Lowe.

But many of the top players broke away in 1993 after a dispute about declining television audiences in the late 1980s and early 1990s

They set up their own world championships, held in the weeks before the BDO event which was played for the last time in January 2020.

Here’s every winner from both world championships.

BDO World Championship:

1978 Leighton Rees

1979 John Lowe

1980 Eric Bristow

1981 Eric Bristow

1982 Jocky Wilson

1983 Keith Deller

1984 Eric Bristow

1985 Eric Bristow

1986 Eric Bristow

1987 John Lowe

1988 Bob Anderson

1989 Jocky Wilson

1990 Phil Taylor

1991 Dennis Priestley

1992 Phil Taylor

1993 John Lowe

1994 John Part

1995 Richie Burnett

1996 Steve Beaton

1997 Les Wallace

1998 Raymond van Barneveld

1999 Raymond van Barneveld

2000 Ted Hankey

2001 John Walton

2002 Tony David

2003 Raymond van Barneveld

2004 Andy Fordham

2005 Raymond van Barneveld

2006 Jelle Klaasen

2007 Martin Adams

2008 Mark Webster

2009 Ted Hankey

2010 Martin Adams

2011 Martin Adams

2012 Christian Kist

2013 Scott Waites

2014 Stephen Bunting

2015 Scott Mitchell

2016 Scott Waites

2017 Glen Durrant

2018 Glen Durrant

2019 Glen Durrant

2020 Wayne Warren

PDC World Championship

1994 Dennis Priestley

1995 Phil Taylor

1996 Phil Taylor

1997 Phil Taylor

1998 Phil Taylor

1999 Phil Taylor

2000 Phil Taylor

2001 Phil Taylor

2002 Phil Taylor

2003 John Part

2004 Phil Taylor

2005 Phil Taylor

2006 Phil Taylor

2007 Raymond van Barneveld

2008 John Part

2009 Phil Taylor

2010 Phil Taylor

2011 Adrian Lewis

2012 Adrian Lewis

2013 Phil Taylor

2014 Michael van Gerwen

2015 Gary Anderson

2016 Gary Anderson

2017 Michael van Gerwen

2018 Rob Cross

2019 Michael van Gerwen

2020 Peter Wright

2021 Gerwyn Price

2022 Peter Wright

2023: Michael Smith