2004 runner-up Kevin Painter was also a notable absentee, failing to qualify for the first time since 1997, when he was a BDO player.

(Compared to 8x more prize money for the Crucible over Lakeside in 1993) Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.

Michael van Gerwen, the winner of the 2014 and 2017 championships, was top of the two-year PDC Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament.

[24] The top seeds below van Gerwen and Cross were 2018 World Grand Prix runner-up Peter Wright, Gary Anderson, 2018 Players Championship Finals winner Daryl Gurney and 2018 Grand Slam of Darts winner Gerwyn Price.

[25] Edgar took the final qualification place after 2018 UK Open runner-up Corey Cadby withdrew.

[24] The list of qualifiers also included the 2018 Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and 2018 World Matchplay semi-finalist Jeffrey de Zwaan.

[24] As part of the expansion of the world championship, there was an increase in the number of tournaments and ranking systems offering qualification places.

Stephen Burton, Adam Hunt and Aden Kirk took the three places, all three of them making their debuts.

[6] In addition to the three PDPA qualifiers, 15 more of the international qualifiers were making their PDC World Championship debuts, Lisa Ashton,[3] James Bailey,[4] Kevin Burness,[5] Nitin Kumar,[11] Darius Labanauskas,[12] Daniel Larsson,[12] Yuanjun Liu,[27] Jim Long,[13] Noel Malicdem,[10] Yordi Meeuwisse,[15] Geert Nentjes,[8] Chuck Puleo,[13] Craig Ross,[14] Karel Sedláček[21] and Raymond Smith.

[25] The top quarter of the draw saw number one seed Michael van Gerwen easily reach the quarter-final, knocking Alan Tabern out in the second round despite having beer thrown at him during the walk on,[28] before consecutive 4–1 victories over Max Hopp[29] and former world champion Adrian Lewis.

[31] James Wade controversially beat Seigo Asada in the second round, having been perceived to have shouted in his opponent's face after winning the second set, and saying after the match that he "wanted to hurt" Asada;[32] Wade subsequently apologised, citing a hypomania episode.

[34] In the quarter-final, van Gerwen triumphed over Joyce, 5–1, to qualify for the semi-final for the sixth time in seven championships.

[35] In the second quarter, fourth seed Gary Anderson had to come through last-set deciders against Jermaine Wattimena[29] and Chris Dobey[30] to reach the quarter-final, while fifth-seed Daryl Gurney was eliminated in the third round by 2018 semi-finalist Jamie Lewis.

[35] In the fourth quarter, the four top seeds were eliminated in the second round, with third-seed Peter Wright losing to Toni Alcinas,[44] sixth-seed Gerwyn Price being eliminated by Nathan Aspinall,[45] eleventh-seeded Ian White losing to South African Devon Petersen[45] and Brendan Dolan whitewashing fourteenth seed Joe Cullen.

Aspinall defeated Petersen, with Dolan getting a 4–1 win over van de Pas to reach the quarter-final.