2025 BWF World Tour Finals

The 2025 BWF World Tour Finals (also known as the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2025 for sponsorship reasons) will be the eighth edition of the season-ending badminton tournament held by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). This prestigious event brings together the top eight players and pairs from the year-long BWF World Tour circuit in each of the five disciplines: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.

Host City Selection

The 2025 BWF World Tour Finals will be held in Hangzhou, China. Hangzhou has secured the rights to host the BWF World Tour Finals for a four-year cycle from 2023 to 2026. This decision was part of the BWF’s long-term strategy to establish Hangzhou as a key hub for elite international badminton competitions, building on the city’s successful staging of the 19th Asian Games. The host city selection process typically involves bids from various cities, with the BWF considering factors such as existing infrastructure, logistical capabilities, and the city’s commitment to promoting badminton. Hangzhou’s strong enthusiasm for the sport and its focus on fostering new talent were significant factors in its selection.

Competition Format

The BWF World Tour Finals features a unique and exciting competition format:

• Group Stage: The eight qualified players/pairs in each discipline are divided into two groups of four (Group A and Group B).
• Round-robin: Within each group, players/pairs compete in a round-robin format, meaning each participant plays against every other participant in their group once.
• Knockout Stage: The top two players/pairs from each group advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals then proceed to the final.
• Matches: All matches are played in a best-of-three-games format, with each game played to 21 points.

This format ensures that players compete in multiple matches, providing ample opportunity to showcase their skills and strategies, and adding an extra layer of excitement for fans.

Players’ Qualification

Qualification for the BWF World Tour Finals is highly competitive, based on the BWF World Tour Ranking accumulated throughout the 2025 season. Only the top eight players/pairs in the BWF World Tour standings for each discipline are eligible to compete.

Key qualification rules include:

• Top 8 Ranking: Players/pairs must be ranked within the top eight of the BWF World Tour rankings as of the cut-off date (after the 2025 Australian Open).
• Country Quota: A maximum of two players or pairs from the same Member Association (country) can qualify for each discipline. This rule ensures diversity in the tournament and prevents one dominant nation from filling all the spots.
• World Champion Automatic Qualification: The reigning 2025 BWF World Champions in each discipline automatically qualify for the tournament, regardless of their BWF World Tour ranking. This spot is in addition to the top eight qualifiers, meaning if a World Champion is not in the top eight of the tour rankings, nine players/pairs would participate in that discipline (with the lowest-ranked qualifier being dropped to maintain an eight-player/pair draw after the World Champion takes their spot).
• Points Calculation: The BWF World Tour ranking points are accumulated from various tournaments throughout the year, including Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and Super 100 events. Typically, only the top 14 results from the BWF World Tour tournaments and a maximum of 3 results from Super 100 tournaments count towards the ranking for the World Tour Finals.
• Tie-breaking Criteria: If two or more players are tied in ranking, the selection is based on:
  1. The players who participated in the most BWF World Tour tournaments.
  2. The players who collected the most points in BWF World Tour tournaments starting on July 1st of that year.

Prize Money

The BWF World Tour Finals is one of the richest tournaments in badminton. For the 2025 edition, the total prize money is confirmed to be US$3,000,000. This represents a significant increase from previous years, reflecting the BWF’s commitment to enhancing the value of the World Tour and providing substantial rewards for the top performers. The prize money is distributed across all disciplines and rounds, with higher amounts awarded to the winners and finalists.

Here’s the prize breakdown:

History

The BWF World Tour Finals, officially known as the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals for sponsorship reasons, is the successor to the BWF Super Series Finals. The BWF World Tour circuit and its culminating Finals were launched in 2018.

The concept of a season-ending championship can be traced back to the World Grand Prix Finals, which ran from 1983 to 2000, inviting the top eight players/pairs based on year-end world rankings. This was followed by the BWF World Superseries Finals, which commenced in 2007.

Notable milestones in the history of the Finals include:

• 2014-2017: The Finals were hosted in Dubai, a strategic move to promote badminton in a developing region for the sport. The prize money saw a significant boost to US$1 million during this period.
• 2018-2019: Guangzhou, China, became the “spiritual home” of the inaugural BWF World Tour Finals cycle, chosen for its strong badminton culture and HSBC’s focus on the Pearl River Delta.
• 2020-2022 (COVID-19 Impact): Due to the global pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 editions were held in a “bubble” format in Bangkok, Thailand, and Bali, Indonesia, respectively, to ensure player safety and maintain the circuit’s continuity. Bangkok also hosted the 2022 edition.
• 2023 onwards: Hangzhou, China, took over as the host city for the 2023-2026 cycle, signaling a return to China for the season finale and leveraging Hangzhou’s status as a major sporting city.

The BWF World Tour Finals remains a highlight of the international badminton calendar, showcasing the pinnacle of the sport and providing a thrilling conclusion to the annual tour.