Top-ranked Michael van Gerwen of the Netherlands took home his second PDC World Darts Championship, easily defeating two-time reigning champion Gary Anderson 7-3 at a sold-out Alexandra Palace Monday.

"I feel absolutely over the moon. I had to find my A game," van Gerwen told Sky Sports after winning. "My average of 108 says it all - it was incredible for everyone."

The win marks van Gerwen's first title since 2014. The match included 42 maximums of 180, a world record for a single darts match.

"It's well deserved for Michael with the year he's had, but I've had a good three years. At 2-2 I just started to drop and got punished," said Anderson, who had 22 of the maximums.

This is van Gerwen's 26th title this season, and it came with 410,000 euros ($429,000) in prize money. Anderson won 188,000 euros for coming in second place.

kbd/cmk (dpa, Reuters)