Michael van Gerwen didn’t hold back when asked about Peter Wright’s early exit from the World Darts Championship.
Wright, a two-time winner of the tournament, crashed out of the second round as debutant Arno Merk ran out a 3-1 winner.
Dressed as Santa, he averaged just 79.2, and his knockout meant fans were denied a throwback to the 2020 final between Wright and Van Gerwen.
Michael van Gerwen delivers brutal Peter Wright message
The Dutchman sailed into the third round with an impressive 3-1 victory over William O’Connor and proved he will remain a threat to favourites Luke Littler and Luke Humphries.
When asked whether he was surprised by Wright’s performance, Van Gerwen responded: “I’m not really surprised by his performance because he’s been playing crap lately.
“I think it’s time for him to retire anyway.”
Wright reached the quarter-finals last year but was knocked out in the second round in 2024 and the third round in 2023.
Scotsman Gary Anderson was more sympathetic towards Wright after his game.
Anderson looked in fine form as he averaged 105 in his victory over Connor Scutt. He said: “We can’t play well all the time. People think we’re robots and you’ve just got to play well all the time or a bad couple of games it’s ‘he’s finished, he’s retiring’.
“Just give folk a break, you know. We can’t keep doing that day in and day out. We’ve seen Michael van Gerwen do that for probably the last decade. He has a blip and it’s ‘that’s it, he’s finished’.”
Michael van Gerwen as brutal as ever when asked about Peter Wright
Fuckinghell Mike, bit below the belt 🤣
— Josh (@joshpearson180) December 23, 2025
World Dart Championship Prize Money
While Luke Humphries and Luke Littler remain tournament favourites, Van Gerwen has shown he will be firmly in the mix.
The three-time winner of the tournament, he hasn’t lifted the trophy since 2019 but has reached the final in two of the last three years.
Littler is 8/11 to be crowned back-to-back champion, with Humphries 9/2 and Van Gerwen 14/1.
The winner of this year’s tournament will pocket a cool £1million, with the runner-up taking home £400,000.
The semi-final losers will earn £200,000, and that is halved for those who reach the quarter-finals.
Fourth-round losers earn £60,000 and third-round losers earn £35,000.
For second round exits, it’s a £25,000 prize pot, while those who failed to progress past the first round earn £15,000.
Any player hitting a nine-darter will be awarded an additional £60,000, but there have only been 16 in WDC history.
The £5million total prize-pot is a record total. That’s double in comparison to the previous seven years and £3.5m more than 10 years ago.
