The tournament featured 100 century breaks; at the time, this was the highest number recorded at an official snooker event (superseded at the 2021 World Championship).

[3] However, in the modern era it has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

[a][3] The championship features 32 professional and qualified amateur players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several frames.

The 32 competitors in the main tournament are selected using a combination of the top players in the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification stage.

[5][6] Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, the final match being held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England.

[9] As of 2022[update], Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan are the event's most successful participants in the modern era, having both won the championship seven times.

[10][11] The 2018 World Championship had been won by Welsh professional player Mark Williams, who defeated Scotland's John Higgins 18–16 in the final.

The remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings, which were released after the China Open, the penultimate event of the season.

Four other former World Championship finalists also competed: Ali Carter (twice: 2008 and 2012), Judd Trump (once: 2011), Barry Hawkins (once: 2013), and Ding Junhui (once: 2016).

Also, four former World Championship finalists participated in the qualifying rounds: Jimmy White (six times: 1984 and 1990–1994), Nigel Bond (once: 1995), Matthew Stevens (twice: 2000 and 2005), and Ali Carter (twice: 2008 and 2012).

[5] The remaining players competed in the preliminary qualifying rounds, and were required to win three best-of-19-frames matches to reach the main stage of the championship.

[5] The qualifying rounds took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between 10 and 17 April 2019, with 16 players progressing to the main stage at the Crucible Theatre.

Besides Cahill, they were Scott Donaldson, Michael Georgiou (The first ever Cypriot to play at the crucible), Li Hang, Luo Honghao, Tian Pengfei and Zhao Xintong.

Finishing 10–0 to Murphy, the match was a whitewash, only the second ever to be witnessed at the Crucible (the first being John Parrott's defeat of Eddie Charlton in the first round of the 1992 championship).

However, he won frame ten on the resumption of play in the second session, with a break of 90, thus avoiding both the whitewash and the lowest points total.

[33][34] Higgins took a 6–3 lead after the first session, but then spent the night in Royal Hallamshire Hospital because his brother Jason had fallen down some stairs at the venue and fractured his kneecap.

[39] Having lost eight of his previous 15 first round matches at the Crucible, 15th seed Stephen Maguire played event debutant Tian Pengfei.

[20] Amateur player James Cahill drew the world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had reached the finals of the other Triple Crown events earlier in the season.

[44] This was Cahill's second win over the top-ranked player in the season, having defeated Mark Selby in the first round of the UK Championship five months earlier.

[46] The last 16 players in the competition took part in the second round, which was played between 25 and 29 April, with matches completed over three sessions as best of 25 frames.

[72] Four-time world champion John Higgins played fourth seed Neil Robertson in the last of the quarter-finals.

The first semi-final pitted four-time champion John Higgins against David Gilbert, who had never previously progressed past the second round of the championships.

[80] Both players gave emotional press conferences afterward, with Gilbert commenting, "I have never won anything, I have come close but this is the best couple of weeks I have had in my snooker career by a mile.

[84] Wilson, ranked 30 in the world, said Judd deserved to win, but he commented on the poor playing conditions, saying: "I wasn't good enough ... but I've got to say that table is disgusting.

[88] Higgins replied with a break of 139 to trail 1–2, before Trump scored a century of his own, a 105, to take a two-frame lead at the first mid-session interval.

[88] At the beginning of the nine-frame evening session, Higgins compiled a break of 125, the third consecutive century of the match, to move ahead 5–4.

[92] Going into the evening session with a 16–9 lead, Trump won two straight frames to win the match 18–9 and claim the 2019 world title.

[96] † = Winner of frame Qualifying for the 2019 World Snooker Championship took place from 10 to 17 April 2019 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, using a 12-table set-up.

Starting with a pool of 128 players, the qualifying competition consisted of three knock-out rounds, with all matches played over two sessions as best of 19 frames.

[103] Internationally, the event was broadcast by DAZN in Canada and the United States, by SKY in New Zealand, and by Now TV in Hong Kong.