In 2012 he reached the last 16 of the PDC World Championship for the first time since 2006. He comfortably beat Scott MacKenzie and Roland Scholten, before being whitewashed, 0–4, to defending champion Adrian Lewis. At the Dutch Darts Masters, Jones produced an upset by beating Phil Taylor 6–5 en route to the quarter-finals, before losing to Paul Nicholson in the semi-finals. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Jones was 32nd in the Order of Merit, gaining the final spot for the Players Championship Finals. He produced a big shock by whitewashing number one seed Dave Chisnall 6–0 in the first round, before bowing out of the tournament 7–10 to Peter Wright.