The event took place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2020 – 3 January 2021, and was played behind closed doors, except for the first day of the tournament, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A rule which has been in place for previous tournaments, where the final set had to be won by two clear legs, was removed in order to prevent sessions overrunning.

[12] The top seeds below Van Gerwen, Wright, Price, Smith and Cross were 2019 UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall, 2020 Grand Slam and European Championship runner-up James Wade, 2019 World Grand Prix runner-up Dave Chisnall and 2020 World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh.

[12][13] As well as Waites, six other players from the Pro Tour made their PDC World Championship debuts; Mike De Decker, Martijn Kleermaker, Maik Kuivenhoven, Jason Lowe, Ryan Murray and Derk Telnekes.

The North American Darts Championship was cancelled, with the place being given to Danny Lauby, the winner of the 2019 CDC Continental Cup.

[10] The PDC Asia Tour was fully cancelled, with the four places being awarded to the winners of one-off qualification events in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.

[17] The final six places – four from uncompleted qualifiers and two as planned – were given to the winners of an event for Tour Card holders held at the conclusion of the PDC Series.

[18] Thirteen players from international qualifiers made their PDC World Championship debuts; Bradley Brooks, Cameron Carolissen, David Evans, Edward Foulkes, Amit Gilitwala, Dmitriy Gorbunov, Deta Hedman, Nick Kenny, Danny Lauby, Haupai Puha, Toru Suzuki, Di Zhuang and Niels Zonneveld.

[19] UK government regulations following the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom allowed Tier 2 areas, including London, to hold sporting events with up to 1,000 spectators indoors.

[20] The Professional Darts Corporation announced that the World Championship would be the first PDC event in the United Kingdom to allow fans, since the UK Open in March 2020.

[21] With London subsequently moving to Tier 3 on 16 December, it meant that the tournament was held behind closed doors for all sessions barring the opening night.

[24] In that round, Van Gerwen came from 3–1 down and survived two darts at the bullseye from Joe Cullen to win in a sudden death last leg and reach the quarter-final for the fifth consecutive year and the eighth time overall.

[25][26] Number eight seed Dave Chisnall reached his third PDC World Championship quarter-final after wins over Keegan Brown,[27] Danny Noppert[25] and Dimitri Van den Bergh.

[32] Anderson then whitewashed Lowe's conqueror Devon Petersen to reach the eighth PDC World Championship quarterfinal of his career.

[29] Peter Wright opened his title defence with a 3–1 win over Steve West, appearing on stage dressed as The Grinch.

[24] Krzysztof Ratajski made it past Ryan Joyce[34] and Simon Whitlock without dropping a set, before knocking out Clemens with a last leg victory of his own, with both players missing multiple darts to win before Ratajski finally hit double one to take the win and become the first Polish player to make a PDC World Championship quarter-final.

[29] In the fourth quarter, third seed Gerwyn Price came thorough a last set decider against fellow Welshman Jamie Lewis[34] and a sudden death last leg decider against 30th seed Brendan Dolan[32] to reach the fourth round, where he took a 4–1 win over Mervyn King to reach the quarter-final for the second consecutive year.

[28] He was joined in the quarter-final by Daryl Gurney, who reached that stage for the second time after wins over William O'Connor,[35] Chris Dobey,[36] and Vincent van der Voort.