However, after this initial burst onto the darting scene, Van Gerwen struggled for consistent form, losing the final of the PDC World Youth Championship in both 2011, and 2012, his breakthrough year.

Van Gerwen was the bookmakers' pre-tournament favourite to win the 2007 Lakeside World title, but his hopes were ended in the first round by Gary Robson.

In the second Players Championship the following day, he beat Raymond van Barneveld in the early rounds only to lose to Alan Warriner-Little in the quarter-finals.

He followed up his victory over Van Barneveld by beating 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor 3–0 in sets on the opening night of the Masters of Darts tournament.

[29] He did not have to wait long for his sixth title of the year, as he won the following week's Players Championship averaging 113 against Jamie Caven in the semi-finals, before beating Nick Fullwell 6–3 in the final.

[36] He averaged over 100 once more to defeat Dean Winstanley 16–8 in the semi-finals, to set up a clash in the final against compatriot and five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld.

[45] In his first World Cup of Darts, he partnered Van Barneveld and the Dutch pair suffered a shock in the last 16 when they were beaten 3–5 by the Finnish duo of Jani Haavisto and Jarkko Komula.

[50] Despite losing in the semi-finals of the European Darts Trophy to Paul Nicholson in April, Van Gerwen replaced Adrian Lewis as the world number two.

[58][59] Van Gerwen's play continued as he won the European Darts Open in Düsseldorf, Germany, saving his best performance for the final where he beat Simon Whitlock 6–2 with an average of 106.68.

[60] Another title followed less than a week later as he won the non-ranking Dubai Darts Masters, taking out finishes of 170 and 164 during an 11–7 triumph over Raymond van Barneveld in the final.

[82] He enjoyed a title success in his home country at the Dutch Darts Masters by beating Mervyn King in a high quality final where both players averaged over 107.

[87][88] He finished top of the Premier League table for the second year in a row, winning 11 of his 16 games, and then edged past Gary Anderson 8–7 in the semi-finals.

[99] He averaged 111 in eliminating Dave Chisnall 10–5 in the quarter-finals of the European Championship and then threw his fourth career televised nine-darter during an 11–6 semi-final victory over Van Barneveld.

[109][110] Van Gerwen continued to dominate the PDC circuit by claiming the fourth and sixth Players Championship events with 6–1 and 6–5 wins over Lewis and Wade respectively.

[120] He looked set to lose a second successive major final when he trailed Gary Anderson 10–7 at the European Championship, but won the next four legs without allowing the Scot a dart for the match to win 11–10.

[129][130] Van Gerwen had won three of the six UK Open Qualifiers and in the fourth round of the main event he produced his fifth televised nine-dart finish while defeating Rob Cross 9–5.

[144] Van Gerwen threw two nine-darters during his third round 6–2 win over Ryan Murray at the fourth UK Open Qualifier and he would take the title by beating Anderson 6–3 in the decider.

Following early exits in the Champions League and the World Grand Prix, Van Gerwen went back to winning ways by claiming his 4th European Championship title by defeating Rob Cross 11–7.

[151] Van Gerwen reached the semi-final of the 2018 PDC World Championship but missed match darts and lost to debutant and eventual champion Rob Cross 6–5.

[154] He took his hundredth PDC singles title at the next UK Open Qualifier with a win over Darren Webster in the final, becoming the second player to do so after Phil Taylor.

Despite sitting out the final three qualifiers, his performances at the first three events was enough for him to top the UK Open Order of Merit and enter at the third round of the tournament.

He knocked Alan Tabern out in the second round despite having beer thrown at him during the walk on,[173] before consecutive 4–1 victories over Max Hopp[174] and former world champion Adrian Lewis.

Van Gerwen retained his World Grand Prix title with a win over Dave Chisnall,[181] and won the Champions League of Darts for the first time, recovering from three legs down to beat Peter Wright 11–10.

He easily reached the quarter-final, recovering from losing the first set to Jelle Klaasen in the second round to win,[185] before consecutive 4–0 victories over Ricky Evans[186] and former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting.

In his 2022 World Championship opener, Van Gerwen beat Chas Barstow before withdrawing prior to his third-round match with Chris Dobey after testing positive for COVID-19.

In the 2024 World Championship, Van Gerwen cruised through his first three matches, defeating Keane Barry, Richard Veenstra, and Stephen Bunting without dropping a single set to reach the quarterfinals.

[208] At the 2024 UK Open, Van Gerwen suffered a shock fourth-round defeat to Mensur Suljović, losing five legs on the spin en route to a 7–10 loss.

[220] During his interview with Abigail Davies on stage after his victory, Van Gerwen swore on live television, saying, "I'm only in the final; I've won f*ck all yet," where fans saw the humour leading to the clip going viral on social media.

[225] Van Gerwen leans forward quite a lot on the oche and throws at a very fast pace and scores extremely heavily meaning he is able to build up momentum over his opponents in a matter of seconds.

[231] The most striking examples of his ability to date include setting a televised average world record of 123.40 in the 2016 Premier League in a 7–1 victory over Michael Smith.