World number one Luke Humphries has revealed that the winner of the 2026 World Darts Championship will receive a record-breaking £1 million prize.
The staggering sum represents a doubling of the £500,000 that teenage sensation Luke Littler pocketed after winning the 2025 tournament.
Humphries made the bombshell announcement during an interview with talkSPORT when discussing Littler's ambition to take his place at the top of the world rankings.
The seven-figure prize fulfils PDC chairman Eddie Hearn's long-held ambition to reach the million-pound milestone for darts' premier event.
Luke Humphries let slip the record-breaking amount on offer for next year's world champion
PA
"Not much really, I'm not fighting desperately to be world number one, I'd rather be world champion, which he is, so for him I'm sure he'd be more happy to be world champion than world number one," Humphries told talkSPORT.
"For me it doesn't matter what happens in the next six, seven, eight months, it's all about the world championships, we all know that the world champion is going to get a million quid, so whoever wins that is going to be world number one."
The 30-year-old, who won the 2024 World Championship, emphasised that the title itself holds more significance than the ranking.
Littler currently leads the Premier League Darts standings ahead of Humphries, with Gerwyn Price winning Night Six in Nottingham last week.
Humphries continued: "If I win that I'll be world number one for a long time, if Luke wins that he's going to be world number one for a long time."
"You can look at someone like Michael van Gerwen or Gerwyn Price winning it, they'll be number one, so it really does not matter what happens over the next seven or eight months."
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The 'Cool Hand Luke' explained the financial disparity between tournaments is what makes the World Championship so crucial.
"The gap between the other majors is so massive that it all depends on who wins the worlds now so whoever wins that championship I can guarantee that they will probably be number one."
The million-pound prize fulfils a vision set out by Eddie Hearn after taking over from his father Barry as PDC chairman.
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Luke Littler is just behind Luke Humphries in the rankingsGettySpeaking in 2021, Hearn said: "I would love to make the World Championship a million pound first prize, that's the general crazy plan that we'll always talk about in board meetings."
Hearn believed the prize money reflects the stature of the sport.
"People relate prize money to the stature and size of the sport," he explained.
The 2025 tournament saw a total prize fund of £2,500,000, with amounts ranging from Littler's £500,000 down to £7,500 for first-round losers.
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