Michael van Gerwen (born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is ranked world number twelve; he was ranked world number one from 2014 to 2021. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, van Gerwen is a three-time PDC world champion, having won the title in 2014, 2017 and 2019, and has won 48 PDC major singles titles, placing him second in the all-time list behind Phil Taylor.
Van Gerwen began playing darts at the age of 13. At age 17, he won the 2006 World Masters and threw a televised nine-dart finish at the 2007 Masters of Darts. 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. Improving from world number 38 at the start of 2012 to number four at the beginning of 2013, he won his first PDC major title at the World Grand Prix and reached the final at the 2013 World Championship. In 2014, at age 24, Van Gerwen became the then-youngest winner of the PDC World Championship.
Van Gerwen's 48 titles include a record seven Premier League titles, three World Matchplay titles, and six World Grand Prix titles. He is also a three-time PDC World Cup of Darts champion, partnering Raymond van Barneveld for the Netherlands. Van Gerwen has reached seven PDC World Championship finals and is one of only five players to win the title more than once. He holds the record for the highest three-dart average in a televised darts match, hitting a 123.4 average against Michael Smith in the 2016 Premier League. As of June 2026, he has won the most PDC Pro Tour events, with 91, and has won a total of 160 PDC titles in his professional career.
Michael van Gerwen was born on 25 April 1989 in Boxtel in the Netherlands. He played football as a defender until he was 12 and began playing darts regularly at 13. He reached the final of the Primus Masters Youth event at the age of 14 in 2003. He then started to amass youth titles in 2006. He also won the Men's events in the Norway and Northern Ireland Opens in the same year that he took the youth titles. Before he became a professional darts player, he worked as a tiler.
Van Gerwen picked up several Open titles and rose up the BDO/WDF World Rankings having climbed to third before his 18th birthday. He reached the semi-finals of the Bavaria World Darts Trophy in 2006. Despite losing to Martin Adams, the Dutch youngster came within one dart of the perfect nine-dart finish, just missing double twelve. He did manage the highest possible checkout of 170 during the tournament.
He managed to eclipse that performance at the 2006 Winmau World Masters by becoming the youngest ever champion. Having trailed 1–4 and 2–5 to Adams, he came back to win the title and took Eric Bristow's record as the youngest ever winner at the age of 17 years and 174 days.
His early career success led to speculation that he would join the other professional circuit of darts, the Professional Darts Corporation. However, during the 2006 World Darts Trophy, Van Gerwen held a press conference to make it clear that he wanted to stay with the BDO/WDF. He also finished top of the DDF (Dutch Darts Federation) Rankings, which would have secured him a place at the PDC World Championship, if he chose to accept. He had already committed to playing at Lakeside, so the place went to Rico Vonck, who finished second in the rankings.
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. On the night of the 2007 BDO World Championship final, it was announced on Dutch television that Van Gerwen, along with Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort, would be switching to the Professional Darts Corporation.
Although he was a BDO player he was eligible for certain PDC events in his home country, even before he switched to the PDC. This included the Open Holland in 2006, in which he took the title. He made his PDC debut on 20 January 2007 at the non-televised Players Championships in Gibraltar and beat Andy Hamilton before losing in the last 16 to Roland Scholten. 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 this by beating 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor 3–0 in sets on the opening night of the Masters of Darts tournament. He went on to reach the semi-final of the tournament and achieved a nine-dart finish against Van Barneveld, but lost the match.
His televised PDC debut came at the 2007 UK Open, where he lost in the last 32 to Colin Osborne. At his first PDC World Championship, he played Phil Taylor in the first round of the 2008 tournament; notably, he had one match dart to knock Taylor out.
Van Gerwen ended his long wait for a tournament victory by beating Vincent van der Voort 6–3 in the final of the Players Championship in Taunton on 11 April 2009. Van Gerwen was defeated 6–4 by Arron Monk in the final of the inaugural PDC Under-21 World Championship.
In the 2012 World Championship, Van Gerwen made it to the last 16 for the first time by beating Colin Osborne and Mervyn King. However he lost to Simon Whitlock 4–3.
Van Gerwen was named Young Player of the Year at the PDC annual awards ceremony on 3 January 2012, for winning four PDC Unicorn Youth Tour events during 2011 and his World Championship run.
In 2012, he won the second UK Open qualifier of the season, defeating Dave Chisnall in the final 6–1. In the UK Open itself he lost in the last 16 to Terry Jenkins. Van Gerwen topped the PDC Youth Tour Order of Merit going into the 2012 PDC World Youth Championship, but went on to lose in the final for a second consecutive year, this time against James Hubbard. Van Gerwen won the eighth Players Championship event in June after beating Simon Whitlock 6–1 in the final. At the World Matchplay, he won 5 legs in a row to record a 10–6 victory over Simon Whitlock in the first round, and then faced a last 16 encounter with Steve Beaton, which he won 13–9 while throwing the fourth nine-dart finish in the tournament's history in the tenth leg. Van Gerwen was 5–11 down in his quarter-final against James Wade, but produced a fightback to only trail 11–12 and then missed one dart to level the game. He went on to lose 13–16.
Van Gerwen's third title of the year came at the 11th Players Championship, where he defeated Ian White 6–1 in the final with a 107.85 average. Van Gerwen was involved in an exceptional match in the last 16 of the European Championship as he was defeated by compatriot Raymond van Barneveld 9–10, despite averaging 104. Another Players Championship success followed with a 6–5 victory over Robert Thornton.
In October 2012, Van Gerwen won his first PDC major title at the World Grand Prix. He came from behind to knock out Colin Lloyd 2–1 in the first round, and then beat an out of sorts Adrian Lewis 3–1 in the second. In the quarter-final against Andy Hamilton, he missed four darts to win 3–1, only for Hamilton to take out a 160 finish to force a decider. Van Gerwen maintained his composure and took the final set 3–2 and then heavily out-scored Wes Newton in the semi-finals in a 5–1 win. He played Mervyn King in the final, defeating him 6–4, after being 0–3 and 1–4 down. Van Gerwen afterwards described the win as the best day in his life and in claiming the £100,000 prize he rose to world number eight, overtaking Van Barneveld as the highest placed Dutchman. 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.
In a Championship League game, van Gerwen averaged 121.86 in defeating Steve Beaton 6–0. He won six of his seven league matches to finish top of the table, but then lost 5–6 to the same opponent in the semi-finals. He soon returned to winning ways by taking another Players Championship title, coming back from 0–4 in the final against Ian White to triumph 6–5.