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Tungsten Tourism: The World Series of Darts and Its Glorious Global Circus
Once upon a time, darts was something you played in the back room of a pub while waiting for your turn at the jukebox. These days? It's a globe-trotting juggernaut with more passport stamps than a washed-up rock band.
Enter the World Series of Darts – the PDC's glitzy global tour that takes elite players, local hopefuls, and tungsten far and wide to promote the sport on other continents.
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Launched in 2013, the series was originally a polite attempt to spread the gospel of 180s beyond Britain's beer-stained borders. It began with the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters – because nothing says darts like 40-degree heat and luxury shopping. Soon after came Sydney, Singapore, and anywhere else that had a stage, an oche, and enough electricity to power a fog machine.
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Each event follows the PDC's tried-and-tested format: eight big names from the main tour - primarily, the Premier League big dogs that year - are dropped into a draw against an octet who are either solid PDC performers in their own right who just happen to originate from that neck of the woods, regional champions or those who came through a gruelling qualifying campaign.
Since 2015, the series has concluded with the World Series Finals, now held in Amsterdam. Why Amsterdam? Well, it's fairly nearby, easily accessible – and for some reason, darts fans seem to find the city has certain other appeals between oche sessions. However, I won't speculate beyond that.
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The prize money, much like Luke Littler's bank account, has ballooned. As of 2025, each international event dishes out £30,000 to the winner. Points are awarded too, and if you win enough matches, you book yourself that trip to Amsterdam – where The Nuke bagged a cool £80,000 for claiming the World Series biggie last year.
Over the years, we have seen almost everything: nine-darters, high quality outdoor thrillers, lost baggage and more shocks than an EastEnders Christmas special. Michael van Gerwen remains the most successful traveller with 21 titles – presumably thanks to elite skill, airport efficiency, and basically, because he is bloody good at darts.
In 2025 alone, players have jetted off to Bahrain, the Netherlands, Denmark, America, and currently in Poland. Up next? A trip halfway around the globe to Australia and New Zealand. If darts ever reaches Antarctica, you can bet the final will still be a best-of-15-legs, and the crowd will include confused penguins.
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The World Series of Darts has become more than a tour. It's a travelling circus of drama, precision, pantomime, and impeccable airline loyalty programmes. Once confined to smoky corners of British pubs, darts now thrives under arena lights from Warsaw to Wollongong.
Gotta love this game, haven't ya!
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