Professional Darts Corporation Triple Crown

The Triple Crown refers to winning the three most prestigious tournaments in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC): the World Championship, the World Matchplay, and the Premier League.[1][2] Since the PDC's inception in 1994, five professional players have won a career Triple Crown: Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler.[3]

Taylor has won the most Triple Crown titles, with 36, with his nearest competitor being van Gerwen with 13. Anderson has five, while since 2023 both Humphries and Littler have won three, with Littler the most recent Triple Crown winner. Of the five, only Taylor has won all three Triple Crown events in a single season, accomplishing this feat twice, in 2006 and 2010. Four further players are required to win only one of the three tournaments to be a Triple Crown champion; James Wade, Peter Wright, Rob Cross, and Raymond van Barneveld.

History

In 1994, the World Championship was held for the first time, with Dennis Priestley winning the first PDC Triple Crown event,[4] the only such win of his career. Larry Butler became the first winner of the World Matchplay that same year,[5] and this was also the only Triple Crown event he won. In 2005, the first Premier League was held, with seven players taking part. The event was won by Phil Taylor, who became the first player to win a career Triple Crown in the process.[6]

Career Triple Crown winners

Five players have completed a career Triple Crown: Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Luke Humphries, and Luke Littler. Only Taylor has won all three Triple Crown events in the same year, a feat he achieved twice, in 2006 and 2010. After winning the World Championship in 2017, van Gerwen held all 3 Triple Crown titles simultaneously (having won both the Premier League and the Matchplay in 2016).

Player Total World
Championship 		World
Matchplay 		Premier
League 		Winning
span 		Career Triple Crown
first achieved 		Single year
Triple Crown 		Ref.
England Phil Taylor 36 14 16 6 1995–2017 2005 Premier League 2 (2006, 2010) [7]
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen † 13 3 3 7 2013–2023 2015 World Matchplay [8]
Scotland Gary Anderson † 5 2 1 2 2011–2018 2018 World Matchplay [9]
England Luke Humphries † 3 1 1 1 2024–2025 2025 Premier League [10]
England Luke Littler † 3 1 1 1 2024–2025 2025 World Matchplay [11]
Legend
† The names of active players are marked in bold.

Other tournament winners

One win away from Triple Crown

James Wade has won the Premier League and World Matchplay once each, meaning he needs to win the World Championship to complete the Triple Crown.[12] Peter Wright is yet to win the Premier League, but does have two World Championship titles and a World Matchplay title to his name. With three Triple Crown competition wins, he has the highest number of Triple Crown titles of any player who has not completed the set.[13] Rob Cross also needs to win the Premier League to complete the Triple Crown having won the World Championship in 2018 and World Matchplay in 2019.[14] Raymond van Barneveld has won the Premier League and World Championship once each, and needs to win a Matchplay to complete the set.[15]

Wright, van Barneveld and Cross have all reached the final of their respective missing Triple Crown tournaments, whereas Wade is a four-time World Championship semi-finalist.

Player Total World Championship World Matchplay Premier League Winning span
England Phil Taylor 36 14 16 6 1995–2017
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 13 3 3 7 2013–2023
Scotland Gary Anderson 5 2 1 2 2011–2018
Scotland Peter Wright 3 2 1 0 2020–2022
England Luke Humphries 3 1 1 1 2024–2025
England Luke Littler 3 1 1 1 2024–2025
England Rob Cross 2 1 1 0 2018–2019
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 2 1 0 1 2007–2014
England James Wade 2 0 1 1 2007–2009
Legend
Player, marked in bold, won all three Triple Crown tournaments.
Player won two of the three Triple Crown tournaments.

References

  1. ^ "Anderson seals thrilling Matchplay win". BBC Sport. 29 July 2018.
  2. ^ "World Matchplay: What if Gary Anderson wins the triple crown?". Sky Sports.
  3. ^ "World Matchplay 2025: Luke Littler beats James Wade to win Phil Taylor Trophy and complete Triple Crown in Blackpool". skysports.com. July 27, 2025.
  4. ^ "The Story of How There Came to be Two World Darts Championships". Balls.ie. 24 December 2021.
  5. ^ "1994 World Matchplay Final | Larry Butler v Dennis Priestley". July 2015 – via www.youtube.com.
  6. ^ "2005 888.com Premier League Darts Results". PDC.
  7. ^ "Mastercaller".
  8. ^ "Mastercaller".
  9. ^ "Mastercaller".
  10. ^ "Mastercaller".
  11. ^ "Mastercaller".
  12. ^ "Mastercaller".
  13. ^ "Mastercaller".
  14. ^ "Mastercaller".
  15. ^ "Mastercaller".
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