Luke Littler: The 17-year-old darting history maker who transcends his sport
The teenager has become the youngest ever world darts champion.
From the moment Luke Littler picked up a dart when he was just three years old, he seemed destined to be a superstar.
Now that superstar has proved he is the best darts player in the world – and he still can not even buy an alcoholic drink.
The 17-year-old from Warrington created history on Friday night by crushing three-time winner Michael van Gerwen to clinch the 2025 World Championship – becoming the youngest person to lift the title.
His was a journey that began 14 years ago when he first threw magnetic darts as a toddler and imitated Raymond van Barneveld’s famous celebration after he won his 2007 world title.
But it has been in the last 13 months that Littler has catapulted himself to the top of the sport, breaking boundaries that seemed impossible.
He burst on to the scene at the 2024 tournament as a 16-year-old nobody had heard of, making it to the final on debut before losing to world number one Luke Humphries.
By the time the 2025 tournament started, he was a household name, having transcended the sport and brought a whole new audience to it.
His performance at last year’s tournament opened doors for him, but it has been his displays at the oche that have seen him barge through them, proving the kebab-loving, Xbox-playing teenager is a serious talent.
Littler, an avid Manchester United fan and devoted follower of rugby league side Warrington Wolves, won an incredible 10 titles on his debut year, including the Premier League and Grand Slam of Darts, and took his earnings to over £1million.
But that has been dwarfed by his income away from the sport as his profile exploded.
He finished second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, was the UK’s most searched athlete of 2024 and appeared on the Jonathan Ross Show and on the front of Forbes magazine.
And he has backed up all that hype by becoming a teenage world champion at Ally Pally.
Phil Taylor is widely regarded as the greatest ever darts player and, with 16 world titles, he rightly stands alone.
But the picture might be different in 20 years – when Littler will not even be 40.
