Littler went on to beat Nathan Aspinall 5–2 in the quarter-finals and Stephen Bunting 6–1 in the semi-finals to reach a second consecutive final, where he defeated Michael van Gerwen 7–3 to win his first world title.

The championship featured 96 participants, with the top 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded through to the second round.

[2][3] Irish gambling company Paddy Power continued their sponsorship of the event, having agreed a three-year contract with the PDC ahead of the 2024 edition.

[4] As part of its promotion of the event, Paddy Power announced 'The Bigger 180' campaign, for which the bookmaker would, as last year, donate £1,000 to charity Prostate Cancer UK for every maximum score of 180 achieved during the tournament, while also introducing a £180,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish hit at the tournament, shared equally between the charity, the player, and a fan in the Alexandra Palace crowd.

[5][6] Going into the event, the previous year's finalists were viewed by bookmakers as the tournament favourites with Luke Littler having won the Premier League,[7][8][9] the World Series Finals,[10] and the Grand Slam of Darts,[11][12] and defending champion Luke Humphries having won the World Matchplay[13][14] and the Players Championship Finals.

Players who participated in the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship were defending their prize money from that event on their ranking.

Edhouse had previously led the non–seeded Pro Tour Order of Merit qualifiers prior to his major win.

[56] Two players who were runners-up in PDC majors in 2024 qualified via the Pro Tour, Jermaine Wattimena at the 2024 European Championship[46][47] and Martin Lukeman at the Grand Slam.

Scutt and Wesley Plaisier also qualified for the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship but withdrew in order to play at the Alexandra Palace.

[21] Other players qualifying via their Pro Tour ranking included 2024 European Championship semi-finalist Luke Woodhouse, 2017 Champions League of Darts winner Mensur Suljović,[67] 13-time PDC ranking event winner Ian White and 2024 Grand Slam semi-finalist[68][69] Mickey Mansell.

Beau Greaves, the winner of the 2024 Women's World Matchplay, qualified but opted to play the WDF event.

[74][75] Debutants from the international qualifiers were Ryusei Azemoto, Stefan Bellmont, Joe Comito, Kai Gotthardt, Romeo Grbavac, Rhys Griffin, Lok Yin Lee, Alexander Merkx, Niko Springer, Rashad Sweeting, Alexis Toylo and Noa-Lynn van Leuven.

The tournament began on 15 December, with defending champion Luke Humphries defeating Frenchman Thibault Tricole 3–0 in his opening match.

[98] Second seed and former champion Michael Smith became the highest-ranked player to fail to make it through the second round, losing 3–2 to Kevin Doets.

[101] Two major champions from the 2024 season also failed to win a match, 2024 World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker being beaten by Luke Woodhouse[102] and 2024 European Champion Ritchie Edhouse losing 3–1 to Ian White,[100] with White himself having received a walkover victory over Sandro Eric Sosing in the first round after the Filipino withdrew with ill health.

[26] Former world champions to win their opening match, in addition to Humphries, were Michael van Gerwen who defeated James Hurrell 3–0, Peter Wright who knocked out Wesley Plaisier 3–1 and Gerwyn Price who beat Keane Barry 3–0.

[104] In his first round defeat to Madars Razma, Christian Kist hit the first nine-dart finish at the World Championship since the 2023 tournament's final.

[107] Rydz and Woodhouse were two of seven unseeded players to make it to the fourth round, along with Ryan Joyce, Ricardo Pietreczko, Kevin Doets, Jeffrey de Graaf and Robert Owen.

[106] Former world champion Gerwyn Price kept his hopes of regaining his crown alive with a victory over Joe Cullen, having to come through a deciding leg in the final set despite having previously held a 3–0 lead.

[111] Two other matches went the full seven sets, Luke Littler defeating Ryan Joyce to reach his second quarter-final from two attempts and Chris Dobey beating Kevin Doets to get through the fourth round for the third consecutive year.

The remaining matches were won by scorelines of 4–0, with 2024 Masters champion Stephen Bunting eliminating Luke Woodhouse and Nathan Aspinall conquering a distinctly below-par Ricardo Pietreczko.

Bunting secured the match victory with a 3–0 win in the seventh set to reach the second PDC world championship semi-final of his career.

Aged 17, Littler became the youngest world champion in PDC history, beating the record previously held by Van Gerwen who was 24 years old when he triumphed in 2014.

[139] Sky Sports coverage was presented by Emma Paton, Anna Woolhouse and Michael Bridge with punditry and commentary coming from Stuart Pyke, Rod Studd, Dan Dawson, Abigail Davies, John Part, Mark Webster, Laura Turner, and Glen Durrant.