Ronnie O'Sullivan won his fourth world title by defeating Ali Carter 18–11 in the final.

Hendry, seven-time winner of the event, announced his retirement from professional snooker following his defeat by Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals.

[1] Invented in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India,[2] the sport was popular in Great Britain.

[3] In modern times it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

[5] The 32 players were selected for the event using the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification competition.

[10][11] Scotsman John Higgins was the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 18–15 in the previous year's final.

[5] The prize fund for the championship was divided as follows:[19][20] The first round was played from 21 to 26 April as the best of 19 frames held over two sessions.

[23] Three players were making their debut at the event: Jamie Jones,[24] Cao Yupeng,[25] and Luca Brecel.

[25][26] Cao and Jones advanced to the second round by defeating Mark Allen 10–6 and Shaun Murphy 10–8 respectively,[29] whilst Brecel lost 5–10 against Stephen Maguire.

[36] Mark Williams stated on Twitter before the championship that he hated the Crucible and wished that the tournament was played in China.

[38] Williams was subsequently booed as he was announced to the crowd before his opening match,[39] and was later fined a total of £4,000.

[39] He was later fined £250, and warned by the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee for swearing during the live press conference.

[41] In his match against Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson made three consecutive century breaks, as he completed a 10–4 victory.

[42] Andrew Higginson and David Gilbert reached the second round of the event for the first time in their respective careers.

Bingham, Graeme Dott, Murphy, Lee, Gould, Ding Junhui, Allen and Selby all lost their places in the tournament.

In the deciding frame Trump needed four snookers and got three, before Carter finally potted the last remaining red ball.

[52] Crucible debutant Jones reached his first ranking event quarter-final by defeating Andrew Higginson 13–10.

[58] After the match Hendry announced his immediate retirement from professional snooker, citing dissatisfaction with his standard of play in recent years and difficulty balancing competitive, commercial and personal commitments.

[69] Earlier in the season, Carter had considered retiring from the game, due to struggles with Crohn's disease.

[70][69] Hendry, acting as a pundit for BBC Sport, commented how Carter had "frustrated" Maguire during the match.

Snooker pundit John Parrott likened playing O'Sullivan to be as difficult as "hold[ing] a tiger by the tail".

[69] This was O'Sullivan's fourth world championship final, having won the prior three,[72] whilst Carter was featuring in his second.

[74] Carter would eventually defeat O'Sullivan at the event in the second round of the 2018 World Snooker Championship.

[85] The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament were for WPBSA members not on the Main Tour and took place on 5 April 2012 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield.

[88][89][90] Robert Milkins made the 87th official maximum break during his round four qualifying match against Xiao Guodong on 11 April 2012.

[91][92][93] For every century break that was made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title sponsor, Betfred, donated £200 to World Snooker's official charity for the 2011/2012 season, Haven House Children's Hospice, with the promise of topping it up to £25,000 if 75 centuries were made.