Gerwyn Price was the defending champion, after he defeated Gary Anderson 7–3 to claim his first World Championship in 2021.

[3][4] William Borland became the first ever player in a televised tournament to hit a nine-dart finish in a deciding leg, against Bradley Brooks in the first round.

Darius Labanauskas then hit the second of the tournament the following day, in his first-round match against Mike De Decker.

[8] Peter Wright won the World Championship for the second time in his career, defeating Michael Smith 7–5 in the final.

2007 World Champion Raymond van Barneveld returned as a Pro Tour qualifier, having announced his retirement following a first-round exit in 2020, and then reversed his decision after a year out.

[33] Four-time BDO Women's World Champion Lisa Ashton qualified via the PDC Women's Tour, alongside Fallon Sherrock, the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finalist and only woman to have previously won a match at the PDC World Darts Championship.

[35] Three of the international qualifiers withdrew following the draw; Charles Losper and Lihao Wen, due to visa issues, and potential debutant Juan Rodriguez, following a positive test for COVID-19.

[31] Debutants via the international and invitation qualifiers were Roman Benecký, Chris Landman, John Norman Jnr, Fabian Schmutzler, Toyokazu Shibata, Ky Smith and Jim Williams.

Two matches turned out to be between two former World Champions, with Rob Cross defeating Raymond van Barneveld[39] and Gary Anderson eliminating Adrian Lewis in an early-round repeat of the 2011 and 2016 finals.

[43] Van Gerwen himself criticised the PDC for a lack of COVID checks on supporters, calling the tournament a "big corona bomb".

[43] Former PDC chairman Barry Hearn responded to these comments made, declaring calls for a postponement "ignorant", and said all fans had been confirmed to be double-vaccinated.

[44] In the third round, running from 27 to 29 December, Price came through a last-leg tie-break against Kim Huybrechts,[45] while Dirk van Duijvenbode fought back from 3–0 down to knock out Ross Smith 4–3.

[45] Former champion Gary Anderson did the same against Ian White,[46] but Joe Cullen's attempt at a similar feat against Martijn Kleermaker faltered as he lost the final set.

[50] There was also 4–3 victories for Luke Humphries over Chris Dobey, both of whom had come through the third round via byes, and for Anderson over Cross in a clash of former World Champions.

Wade comfortably beat Mervyn King 5–0 to reach his fourth World Championship semi-final.

Wade broke back in the third set before Smith restored the two-set advantage by breaking again in the fourth.

Wright stopped the comeback by holding throw in the sixth set, and from then on a high-quality match went with throw, with Wright breaking Anderson's record - set in the 2017 final - for most 180s in a World Championship match, with 24, and taking the win 6–4 to reach his third World Championship final.