Michael van Gerwen's Players Championship 15 victory did more than end his wait for another PDC ranking title. It also moved him into another piece of ProTour history. By winning in Leicester, where he beat fellow Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode 8-5 in the final, Van Gerwen became the first player ever to win at least one Players Championship title in 15 different seasons.
It is a statistic that underlines not just his peak level, but his longevity. Van Gerwen's first Players Championship title came all the way back in 2009, and 17 years later, he is still adding to the same column. The scale of Van Gerwen's Players Championship record is shown by how often he has returned to the winner's circle across different phases of his career. His strongest year in the series came in 2012, when he won six Players Championship titles. He added five more in 2016, four in 2018 and three in both 2014 and 2020. There were also two-title seasons in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2024, while he claimed one title in 2009, 2021, 2023 and now 2026. The only gaps on that run since his first success came in 2010, 2011 and 2025, making this latest win particularly notable after a season without a Players Championship title last year.
Van Gerwen's latest success came in emphatic statistical fashion too. At Players Championship 15, he recorded the highest average of the day with a huge 122.34 in his 7-0 semi-final win over Martin Schindler. He then completed the job in the final, seeing off Van Duijvenbode 8-5 to secure the title. For a player whose career has already been defined by records, dominance and repeated reinvention, this is another marker of his staying power. Van Gerwen has now won Players Championship titles across 15 separate seasons, stretching from his early rise in 2009 to his latest success in 2026.
