The 2025 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2025 Halo World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 19 April to 5 May 2025 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 49th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, the tournament was the 18th and final ranking event of the 2024–25 season. It was broadcast domestically by BBC Sport, in Europe by Eurosport, and elsewhere in the world by WST Play and other broadcasters. The winner received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,395,000.

The top 16 players from the snooker world rankings—as they stood after the 2025 Tour Championship—were seeded through to the main stage at the Crucible. They were joined by the 16 successful players from the qualifying rounds, which took place from 7 to 16 April at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, featuring 128 players who were either professionals ranked outside the top 16 or invited amateurs. A then-record number of players from China—four seeds and six qualifiers, making ten in total—reached the main stage of the tournament. Crucible debutants at the event were Lei Peifan, Zak Surety, and Daniel Wells. Veteran players Dominic Dale and Joe Perry, who had both played on the professional tour since 1992, retired after their qualifying defeats.

Kyren Wilson was the defending champion, having defeated Jak Jones 18–14 in the 2024 final to win his maiden world title. He lost 9–10 to Lei in the first round, becoming the 20th player to experience the Crucible curse, referring to the fact that no champion had retained the title since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977. Competing as an amateur after serving a 20-month ban, Zhao Xintong won four qualifying matches to reach the main stage. After beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–7 in the semi-finals, Zhao defeated Mark Williams 18–12 in the final to become the first World Champion from Asia. The fourth qualifier to win the world title, Zhao was the first player to win a ranking title while competing as an amateur. Williams, aged 50, was the oldest finalist in the tournament's history, surpassing Ray Reardon, who had reached the 1982 final at age 49. The final featured the largest ever age gap (22 years) between two world finalists and was the first world final contested by two left-handed players.

The qualifying rounds produced a new record of 143 centuries. In the third qualifying round, Jackson Page became the first player to make two maximum breaks in a professional match; he won a £147,000 bonus for making two maximums across that season's Triple Crown events and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. The main stage produced 107 century breaks, the third-highest total on record. Zhao made 18 centuries across the qualifying rounds and main stage combined, equalling the record set by Ding Junhui at the 2016 event. In the second round, Mark Allen made the fifth maximum break of his career and the 15th in Crucible history. The maximums by Page and Allen took the season total to a new record of 15, surpassing the previous record of 13. Also in the second round, Judd Trump made his 100th century of the season, winning a £100,000 bonus. Trump finished the season with a record 107 centuries, surpassing Neil Robertson's previous record of 103.

Background

The inaugural 1927 World Snooker Championship, then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker, took place at various venues in England between November 1926 and May 1927. Joe Davis won the final—held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham from 9 to 12 May 1927—and went on to win the tournament 15 consecutive times before retiring undefeated after the 1946 edition (no tournaments were held from 1941 to 1945 because of World War II). The tournament went into abeyance after only two players contested the 1952 edition. The six editions of the World Professional Championship held between 1952 and 1957 are retroactively regarded as legitimate continuations of the World Snooker Championship, but that tournament was discontinued due to waning public interest in snooker in the post-war era. The world title was uncontested between 1958 and 1963.

Then-professional player Rex Williams was instrumental in reviving the World Snooker Championship on a challenge basis in 1964. John Pulman, winner of the 1957 World Professional Championship, defended the world title across seven challenge matches between 1964 and 1968. The World Snooker Championship reverted to an annual knockout tournament for the 1969 edition, marking the beginning of the championship's "modern era". The 1977 edition was the first staged at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has remained since. The most successful players in the modern era are Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan, each having won the title seven times.

Overview The 2025 event was organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored for the first time by technology company Halo Service Solutions. It was the 18th and final ranking event of the 2024–25 snooker season. The event marked the 49th consecutive year that the tournament was held at the Crucible Theatre and the 57th successive year that the World Championship was contested through the modern knockout format. It marked the 40th anniversary of one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, in which Taylor recovered from losing the first eight frames to win the on the last . On 17 April, the inaugural Champions' Dinner took place in Sheffield, modelled on the Masters Champions' Dinner held annually since 1952 at the Augusta National Golf Club before the Masters Tournament. Attendees paid tribute to the champion Ray Reardon and the 1979 winner Terry Griffiths, who both had died since the previous year's tournament. Format The top 16 players in the snooker world rankings, as they stood after the 2025 Tour Championship, were seeded through to the main stage of the tournament. Qualifying took place from 7 to 16 April at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, featuring 128 players, 16 of whom also reached the main stage. The qualifiers were held over four rounds, with players ranked 49 to 80 seeded through to the second qualifying round, and players ranked 17 to 48 seeded through to the third qualifying round. All qualifying matches were played as the best of 19 , held over two . The draw, during which the 16 successful qualifiers were drawn at random against the top 16 seeds, was held on 17 April, broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website. The main stage of the tournament took place from 19 April to 5 May at the Crucible Theatre. matches were played as the best of 19 frames, held over two sessions. and matches were played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions. The matches were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions. The final was the best of 35 frames, also held over four sessions.

Broadcasters The qualifying rounds were broadcast by Discovery+ in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Austria; by Max in other European territories; by Huya, Migu, the Academy WeChat Channel, and Academy Douyin in China; and by WST Play in all other territories. The final round of qualifying, billed as "Judgement Day", was broadcast for free on WST Play on 15 and 16 April.

The main stage was broadcast by BBC Sport, TNT Sports, and Discovery+ in the United Kingdom and TNT Sports in Ireland. It was broadcast by Eurosport in Europe; by Discovery+ in Germany, Italy, and Austria; by HBO Max in the Netherlands; and by Max in other European territories (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland). It was broadcast by Migu, Huya, the Academy WeChat Channel, and Academy Douyin in mainland China; by Now TV in Hong Kong; by Astro SuperSport in Malaysia and Brunei; by TrueVisions in Thailand; by Sportcast in Taiwan; by TAP Sports in the Philippines; by Sportstars/Vision+ in Indonesia; by StarHub in Singapore; by Anten in Iran; and by WST Play in all other territories. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final were broadcast on Sky Sport in New Zealand. The final was broadcast on CCTV-5 in China.

The BBC reported that its domestic online viewership figures—via the BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app—increased by 25 per cent over the previous year's event. It reported peak television viewership of 3 million on BBC Two during the final, an audience share of 22.5 per cent. The BBC's average television audience for live sessions across the tournament increased 6.5 per cent over the previous year. It was reported by The Guardian that 150 million people in China watched the final.

Prize fund The winner of the event received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,395,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:

Winner: £500,000 Runner-up: £200,000 Semi-finalists: £100,000 Quarter-finalists: £50,000 Last 16: £30,000 Last 32: £20,000 Last 48: £15,000 Last 80: £10,000 Last 112: £5,000 Highest (qualifying stage included): £15,000

Total: £2,395,000

In addition to the highest break prize, bonuses of £40,000 and £10,000 were offered for maximum breaks made at the main stage and in the qualifying rounds respectively. An additional bonus of £147,000 was on offer to any player who made two maximums across that season's Triple Crown events (the 2024 UK Championship, the 2025 Masters, and the 2025 World Championship) and the 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.

Summary Qualification First qualification round

The first qualifying round was played from 7 to 9 April, featuring players ranked 81 to 112 against players seeded 113 to 144, including amateurs selected by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). The tournament featured four female players, all of whom lost in the first qualifying round: Reanne Evans lost 4–10 to Antoni Kowalski, Mink Nutcharut lost 4–10 to Ian Burns, Baipat Siripaporn lost 2–10 to Farakh Ajaib, and Bai Yulu lost 3–10 to Liam Highfield. Zhao Xintong was playing in his first World Championship since the 2022 event, having returned to competition in September 2024 after serving a ban. He was competing in the tournament as an amateur, although he had recently earned a professional tour card for the following two seasons by topping the 2024‍–25 Q Tour Europe ranking list, after winning four consecutive Q Tour events. He made four century breaks (128, 122, 132, and 141) and five other as he defeated Cheung Ka Wai 10–3. Michał Szubarczyk, aged 14, attempted to become the youngest player to reach the main stage at the Crucible, but he lost 8–10 to Dean Young.

Competing in his 45th World Championship, Jimmy White, who had last reached the main stage at the 2006 event, faced Anton Kazakov, a player 42 years his junior. Despite losing the third frame due to the and falling 3–7 behind, White took six frames in a row and went on to win the match 10–9. Facing 2024 Snooker Shoot Out Liam Graham, amateur player Fergal Quinn won the 18th frame on a to force a , but Graham prevailed to win 10–9. Having changed his for the first time in his career (a significant move, given the deeply personal and enduring relationship many snooker players have with their cues), the 1997 winner Ken Doherty recorded a session against Haydon Pinhey, winning all of the first nine frames. He went on to win the match 10–3. Florian Nüßle recovered from 1–5 behind against Duane Jones to force a deciding frame, but Jones won 10–9. Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Baipat, Mostafa Dorgham, Evans, Andrew Pagett, and Liam Pullen all lost their professional tour cards after their defeats. Evans qualified for a new two-year tour card through her position in the end-of-season women's world rankings, while Pullen secured a new tour card through 2025 Q School.

Second qualification round