Luke Littler is a household name and fan favourite after a remarkable rise in darts at the 2024 and 2025 World Darts Championships.
The teenager missed out on the world title at Alexandra Palace after losing to Luke Humphries in 2024, but became the sport's youngest world champion at 17 years old after hammering Michael van Gerwen in January 2025.
In July, he defeated James Wade in the final of the World Matchplay to complete the Triple Crown by joining Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Luke Humphries as the only players to win the World Matchplay, World Championship and Premier League.
Keep track of Littler's schedule and results, and get the lowdown on the sporting star, from his walk-on song to his favourite football team.
Littler will play in the Players Championship Finals in Minehead which takes place from November 21-23.
He will then begin preparations for the defence of his World Darts Championship title, live on SportNews From Thursday December 11 to Saturday January 3.
After losing in the quarter-finals of the World Masters, Littler started the defence of his Premier League Darts title in Belfast but lost to Van Gerwen in .
However, he bounced back a week later to win the second night in Glasgow after beating Humphries in the final but lost to Gerwyn Price in his first match in Dublin.
He then made it to the final in Exeter and was beaten by Humphries in the final but then went onto win against Nathan Aspinall in Brighton on a night where both Humphries and Rob Cross hit nine-darters.
Night Six in Dublin also brought another final and despite moving to the top of the Premier League table, Littler came off second best in a 6-3 loss to Price.
However, he triumphed in Cardiff a week later,
Littler's dominance in the Premier League then continued on Night Eight in Newcastle
after thrashing three-time champion James Wade 11-2 in a one-sided final and he .
was followed by a , before Night 11 in Rotterdam saw l.
, with in Liverpool.
Littler then went onto pick up a record fifth win on Night 14 on the Premier League against Van Gerwen,
But he was then unable to successfully defend his Premier League title on Finals Night at The O2 arena in London, after seeing off Price 10-7 in the last four.
He lost to in Copenhagen before suffering a shock exit alongside playing partner in Frankfurt.
'The Nuke' averaged almost 109 at the US Darts Masters in New York.
July saw him add the World Matchplay to his list of titles as he , breaking the record for most 180s in tournament history and replacing Wade as the youngest player to lift the Phil Taylor Trophy.
He then went back-to-back in the World Series of Darts double header Down Under - before inflicting the same score line on a week later.
He then claimed another major title in October when he won t.
He stunned many followers by announcing he would play in the early rounds of the World Youth Championship in Wigan the day after that victory, .
He then won his sole later that week, before picking up another major title with a .
Littler went mainstream at Ally Pally during a sensational run at the 2024 World Darts Championship.
A 106.12 average saw Littler thrash Christian Kist in the first round, and the teenager suddenly earning worldwide attention saw off Brendan Dolan and Cross in his breakout tournament, only to lose a thrilling final 7-4 to Humphries.
The attention did not appear to faze him, because Littler swiftly - hitting a nine-darter against Aspinall in the process.
Littler made his Players Championship debut in Wigan on February 12 - and promptly hit a nine-darter.
The youngster went on to make waves on the European Tour in 2024, winning both the Belgian Darts Open and , after which his vanquished final opponent declared him a "generational talent".
at London's O2 Arena, joining an illustrious winners list of Phil Taylor, Wade, Gary Anderson, Van Gerwen, Jonny Clayton, Glenn Durrant and Raymond van Barneveld.
The teen also claimed several other titles in 2024, before warming up for the World Darts Championship by winning the , storming to a 16-3 win over Martin Lukeman.
He capped off the year and started 2025 by becoming world champion after overcoming an early score against Ryan Meikle, where he made history with a new set average record of 140.91, before going on to beat Van Gerwen in a largely one-sided final.
Littler is currently ranked number one in the world.
He entered the 2024 World Darts Championship ranked 164th in the world and over a year later, after becoming world champion, he rose to to number one on the PDC Order of Merit*, which is based on prize money won over a two-year period from ranking tournaments, and crucially determines the line-up for several major tournaments over the calendar year.
According to the PDC rankings, Littler has banked more than £1.8m in prize money in that time.
*Correct at November 2025
He began training at the St Helens Darts Academy at the age of nine, under the watchful eye of co-founder Karl Holden.
"He was good when he was nine years old," Holden said. "When he got to 10, when we ran the darts academy, we had a rule, to play on stage you had to be over 15. We had to change that for Luke because of his ability, he was just unbelievable. He was playing U21s when he was 10 because he was simply too good.
"We've had over a thousand kids at the academy over the years. Some play well for a few years then leave, some don't progress as much as they expected, but Luke's just shocked us."
A 12-year-old Littler won the England Youth Grand Prix in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic put a halt on all sports.
In 2021, he won the England Open youth title and notched up his first seniors title at the Irish Open. In the same year, Littler punched in a nine-darter at the JDC MVG Masters tournament.
In 2022, Littler averaged 121.86 in one of his matches as he starred at the WDF Europe Cup Youth, where he won gold in the three men's competitions (singles, team and overall). That performance saw him selected by England for a youth tournament where he also struck gold.
Littler won the Junior World Championship at the end of the year, and further youth titles came in 2023 - including the PDC World Youth Championship.
Littler's official nickname is 'The Nuke'. The moniker is emblazoned on the back of his purple and yellow shirt.
Van Gerwen mischievously dubbed him 'Kebab Boy' after Littler jokingly said he liked to celebrate victory with a greasy snack...
Littler thrills fans by swaggering out on stage to 'Greenlight' by Pitbull.
The teenager has said a trip to Wrestlemania 33 in Florida - where he "sung his head off" hearing the hit as a 10-year-old - inspired his song choice.
A natural showman, Littler seems to relish the big stage, whether it's stoking the crowd or winding up his rivals...
And he's not averse to sampling fellow competitors' walk-on routines, too...
The World Championship finalist uses his own set of darts manufactured by sponsors Target. They're a pixel grip, which tend to be expensive compared to normal darts with longer 45mm points.
He uses the No 6 K Flex in 26mm, which makes the arrows an all-in-one system so they don't pop off when he holds a bunch of flights.
Littler stands in a standard position, holding his darts with his thumb, finger and middle finger, with the point lying on his forefinger.
The teenager uses longer points so that when the darts sits in the board there's more room of scoring a maximum or 140.
As well as following rugby league side Warrington Wolves, Littler is a big Manchester United fan.
He was given the red-carpet treatment at the start of the 2024, , and recently ran the rule over his favourite former United players, including David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
And he's tried to teach the current crop a thing or two at the oche...
Littler had expected a hostile reception due to his footballing allegiance when the Premier League Darts tournament rolled into Liverpool, but he cheekily responded to the crowd's boos by the previous night.
Phil Taylor: "I like his attitude towards the game, I like it because he's got that little bit of needle when he gets beat. Some people call it cocky, some people call it arrogance, it's not, it's nothing to do with that. The lad knows his ability, he knows how good he is and he knows he can get better."
Michael van Gerwen: "Luke has a very bright future ahead of him. We all know that, but you still want to stop him, and you have to do the right things against him. His scoring power is immense. Do I have to chase him? He has to chase me still. I'm about 150 tournaments in front of him, so good luck to him."
Michael Smith: "Everyone's fallen in love with him. He's even bigger than Phil Taylor who won 16 world titles, Luke is the most popular thing in darts."
SportNews' Wayne Mardle: "I'm a darts fan first and foremost; I was watching (the World Darts Championship) and I had goosebumps watching him. I love people achieving and that was a boy achieving something on the world stage. We may never see the like again. We saw it with Phil Taylor and then we saw it with Michael van Gerwen. This may be the third coming of that. I don't know, but I'm a little bit carried away."
