Luke Littler (born 21 January 2007) is an English professional

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

player who competes in

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

(PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number two. Nicknamed "the Nuke", Littler is the reigning PDC World Champion after winning the 2025 World Championship, where he became the youngest world champion in darts history, at 17 years and 347 days old. He has won four other major televised titles: the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

and World Series Finals all in 2024, and the

2025 UK Open The 2025 UK Open, known as the 2025 Ladbrokes UK Open for sponsorship reasons, was a professional darts tournament that was held from 28 February to 2 March 2025 at Butlin's Minehead, Butlin's in Minehead, England. It was the twenty-third UK Op ...

. He has won two

World Series of Darts The World Series of Darts is a series of darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. Beginning in 2013, the World Series has comprised between two and seven tournaments across the world, where a mixture of the top-ranked P ...

titles, also in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. Littler has won a total of thirteen PDC titles in his professional career; his five major titles are the ninth-most in PDC history. In his youth career, Littler won the

2023 PDC World Youth Championship The 2023 PDC Pro Tour was a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Players Championships and European Tour events are the events that make up the Pro Tour. There were thirty Players Champion ...

, five PDC Development Tours and the 2022 World Youth Masters, as well as the Junior Darts Corporation's

JDC World Darts Championship The JDC World Darts Championship is a darts youth's tournament that has been held since 2017 in various locations, while the final match is played during the PDC World Darts Championship in Alexandra Palace, London London is the Capital cit ...

and JDC Super 16 twice each. Having played in

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...

and

World Darts Federation The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-poin ...

events since he was 12, Littler won his first senior title at age 14. He competed in the

2022 WDF World Darts Championship The 2022 Lakeside WDF World Championship was the first World Professional Darts Championship, World Championship organised by the World Darts Federation (WDF). The tournament was held at the Lakeside Leisure Complex, Lakeside Country Club in Frim ...

, becoming the youngest player to win a match at a WDF World Championship, before going out in the last 16. After qualifying for the

2024 PDC World Darts Championship The 2024 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2023/24 Paddy Power World Darts Championship) was a professional darts event that took place at Alexandra Palace in London, England, from 15 December 2023 to 3 Januar ...

through his placement on the Development Tour, he became the youngest player to win a match at a PDC World Championship. A 66/1 outsider before the tournament, he defeated six opponents—including former world champions

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is a five-t ...

and

Rob Cross Robert Cross (born 21 September 1990) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number eight; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2018 ...

—en route to the final, where he was defeated by

Luke Humphries Luke Humphries (born 11 February 1995) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number one. He is a former PDC World Darts Champion ...

. In 2025, Littler reached the final for a second consecutive time, where he defeated

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

to win the title. Littler is the youngest player to hit a televised

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly a ...

, which he achieved at the

2024 Bahrain Darts Masters The 2024 Bahrain Darts Masters was a professional darts tournament that was held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain from 18–19 January 2024. It was the second staging of the tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation a ...

two days before his 17th birthday. He is also the youngest to hit two televised nine-darters, having hit a second in the 2024 Premier League Darts final at age 17. Littler is the youngest player to hit a broadcast nine-darter, having achieved the feat in 2021 at age 14. Named

BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award is presented at the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony. It is awarded to the sportsperson aged 17 or under as of 1 January of that year, who has made the most outstanding co ...

in 2024, he was also runner-up for

BBC Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just a single award of the same name. Several new awards have been introduced, and cu ...

, behind

Keely Hodgkinson Keely Nicole Hodgkinson (born 3 March 2002) is an English middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 800 metres at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Hodgkinson was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024.Harry Poole'Hodgkinson wins ...

. His rise to prominence at age 16 led to an increased interest in the sport, a phenomenon dubbed "Littlermania" or the "Littler effect". Littler has been noted for his scoring power, hitting a large number of maximum 180 scores, and his proficiency on the double 10 section of the board's outer ring.

Early life

Born on 21 January 2007, Littler spent his early childhood in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

before moving to nearby

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

. He has two brothers and a sister. He began playing darts when he was 18 months old, after his father bought him a magnetic dart board from a

pound shop A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, household hardware, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. ...

. He scored his first 180 at the age of six and a

at the age of 13. When he was 10, he joined the St Helens Darts Academy and began playing in under-21 leagues. He was educated at Padgate Academy in Warrington.

Career

Early career

In 2019, Littler won the England Youth Grand Prix and the Isle of Man Masters youth competition, where he was able to defend his title in 2020. The 2020 JDC Tour featured two titles from Littler, with him later winning three titles on the JDC Advanced Tour in 2021. Littler won the youth title at the England Open in September 2021 and finished second in the British Pentathlon. In November 2021, Littler won his first seniors title at the

Irish Open Irish Open may refer to: *Irish Open (golf), a golf tournament on the European Tour ** Irish Senior Open, a golf tournament on the European Seniors Tour **Ladies Irish Open, a golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour * Irish Open (darts), annua ...

defeating Barry Copeland 6–2 in legs. This qualified Littler for the

, at the age of 14. At the end of November, during the JDC MVG Masters tournament, he hit a

2022

Littler won the JDC Super 16 in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

at the end of January 2022, beating Eleanor Cairns in the final. In March 2022, he won the youth competition at the Isle Of Man Open and advanced to the finals of the Isle of Man Classic. At the

, Littler started as a seeded player from second round and won his first match against

Ben Hazel Ben Hazel (born 22 May 1990) is an English professional darts player who plays in World Darts Federation (WDF) events. Career In May 2018, Hazel won the Vilnius Open, he beat Łukasz Wacławski in the final. In 2019, he reached Quarter-Finals in ...

3–2 in sets. He was then beaten 3–0 in sets by

Richard Veenstra Richard Veenstra (born 10 July 1981) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Veenstra previously played in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where he won the 2019 Dutch Open, a ...

, who set a record average for a World Championship match at Lakeside. During the Welsh Open warm-up tournament, Littler hit a 121.86

three-dart average The three-dart average in darts is the average of the total score achieved with each turn of three darts. Averages are the most cited statistics in matches as they give a rough estimate of a player's form. The longer a match lasts, the harder it i ...

in one of his matches. A day later, he won the final for another senior tournament win in his career. In June 2022, he also won the Romanian Classic, beating

Jelle Klaasen Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984), nicknamed the Cobra, is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He previously participated in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where in 2006 ...

in the final by 5–1 in legs. At the 2022 WDF Europe Cup Youth, he won the gold medal in three men's competitions (singles, team and overall). His best achievement was defeating Archie Self in the finals of the singles competition, 6–1 in legs. In the pair competition, together with Archie Self, he lost in the semi-finals, 4–1 in legs to Thomas Banks and Charlie Manby. At the end of September 2022, Littler was selected by the national federation to participate in the

2022 WDF Europe Cup The 2022 WDF Europe Cup was the 22nd edition of the WDF Europe Cup, organised by the World Darts Federation. The tournament was held for the first time in history at the Gandía Palace Hotel in Gandía, Spain. Medals were distributed in eight disci ...

. On the second day of the tournament, he advanced to the quarter-finals of the pairs competition where he played alongside James Hurrell. They lost to Sam Canket and Nick Kenny from Wales, 4–1 in legs. On the third day of the tournament, he advanced to the quarter-finals of the singles competition, where he lost to

Andy Baetens Andy Baetens (born 24 February 1989) is a Belgian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is a former WDF World Champion, having won the 2023 World Championship to become the first Belgian playe ...

5–4 in legs. In the team competition, he won the gold medal. In the points classification, as a representative of England, he contributed to winning a gold medal. Littler won the

in London at the end of December 2022, beating Harry Gregory 5–0 in legs.

2023

Littler continued to play on the

circuit in 2023. He won the

British Classic The British Classics are five long-standing Group 1 horse races run during the traditional flat racing season. They are restricted to three-year-old horses and traditionally represent the pinnacle of achievement for racehorses against their ow ...

whitewashing Whitewash is a paint-like covering of hydrated lime or a cheap white paint. Whitewash or whitewashing may also refer to: Racist practices * Whitewashing (beauty), modifying the skin tones of photographs of nonwhite people in mass media * Whitew ...

Carl Wilkinson 5–0 in the final. On the same weekend, he also won the

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

, defeating Peter Jacques 5–2 in the final. Littler made his debut at a PDC major event at the

2023 UK Open The 2023 Cazoo UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the twenty-first year of the tournament where players compete in a single-elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held at ...

, qualifying for the tournament via an amateur qualifying event organised by Rileys. He reached the fourth round alongside fellow Rileys qualifier Thomas Banks, where he lost to eventual semi-finalist

Adam Gawlas Adam Gawlas (born 18 February 2002) is a Czech professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He reached his first major semi-final at the 2023 UK Open. In his youth career, Gawlas was the runner-up at the ...

10–8. In May 2023, Littler won the third season of the MODUS Super Series, defeating Jacob Taylor 4–1 in legs in the final. In August 2023, he won the fourth season of the MODUS Super Series, defeating

Colin Osborne Colin Osborne (born 19 June 1975) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In 2009, he won the Championship League and reached the final of the UK Open. Darts career Osborne has won two ...

4–2 in the final. Littler competed in the 2023 PDC Development Tour series. He won event three – defeating

Jurjen van der Velde Jurjen van der Velde (born 4 December 2002) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the 2018 JDC World Darts Championship and the 2018 World Youth Masters. Van der Velde formerly p ...

5–1 in the final, event five – defeating Kevin Troppmann 5–3 in the final, and event sixteen – defeating Bradly Roes 5–2 in the final. He also won event twenty, where he hit a

in his last 16 win against Rune van Damme and defeated

Gian van Veen Gian van Veen (born 23 April 2002) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty-three. Nicknamed "the Giant", Van Veen made his first major se ...

5–4 in the final. He won his fifth Development Tour title at event 24, defeating Cam Crabtree 5–1 in the final. Littler finished second on the 2023 Development Tour Order of Merit behind Gian van Veen. On 26 November, Littler beat Gian van Veen 6–4 in the

final. The next month, he retained his

title, defeating Álmos Kovács 5–3 in the final.

2024

Littler made his first PDC World Championship appearance at the 2024 World Championship, qualifying as a result of his placement on the PDC Development Tour Order of Merit. He started off as an outsider with 66/1

odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outcome. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. For example for an event that is 40% probable, one could say that the odds are or When gambling, o ...

. In the fourth round, he beat five-time world champion

4–1. He then defeated

Brendan Dolan Brendan Gabriel Dolan (born 2 August 1973) is a Northern Irish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was the first player to hit a nine-dart finish in a "double-to-start" event (where a pla ...

5–1 in the quarter-finals and former world champion

6–2 in the semi-finals. This made him the youngest player to reach the PDC World Championship final, as he was aged 16 years and 347 days. In the final, Littler lost 4–7 to

. In January, Littler made his

debut at the Bahrain Darts Masters. He hit his first televised nine-dart finish in his quarter-final win against

Nathan Aspinall Nathan Aspinall (born 15 July 1991) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number six; he reached a peak ranking of world number ...

, becoming the youngest player to do so. He won 8–5 against

in the final. Littler made another World Series final at the Dutch Darts Masters. In a rematch of the Bahrain final, Littler was defeated by Van Gerwen 8–6. He won his second World Series title at the Poland Darts Masters, beating Rob Cross 8–3 in the final. As he had gained a

PDC Tour Card The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and European Tour events. Only four players ...

, Littler played at his first Players Championship series, winning three titles. Littler also won two titles on the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

. Littler hit his third

of the year in his victory at the Belgian Darts Open. He also won the Austrian Darts Open. On 15 September, Littler won the World Series Finals, defeating Michael Smith 11–4 in the final. On 17 November, Littler defeated

Martin Lukeman Martin Lukeman (born 26 March 1985) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was the runner-up at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts. Career Lukeman managed to reach the last 16 of the 201 ...

16–3 in the

Grand Slam of Darts The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC used to invite the best performing players from its rival, the Briti ...

final, securing the title on debut and winning his first ranking major title. Also in November, he defeated Ross Smith 11–9 to reach his third ranking PDC major final at the

2024 Players Championship Finals The 2024 Players Championship Finals (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2024 Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals) was the sixteenth staging of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) darts tournament, which saw the top 64 players from the ...

. He lost the final to

11–7.

Premier League Darts debut

Following the World Championship, Littler was announced to be part of the 2024 Premier League as one of the four chosen wildcards. Littler won his debut match against

6–2, but lost his semi-final match 6–5. Littler reached the final in week two, but lost to

6–5. Night nine saw Littler win a Premier League night for the first time, beating

6–4 in the final. Littler then won three more nights to top the table in the league phase after the 16 weeks. This meant that in the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

Littler played Michael Smith, who he defeated 10–5 in the semi-final. He then won his first major title, beating Humphries 11–7 in the final. He became the youngest player to win a major PDC tournament. Littler also hit a nine-darter in the final.

2025

Littler entered the second round of the 2025 World Championship as the fourth seed, where he defeated

Ryan Meikle Ryan Thomas Meikle ( born 13 August 1996) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He reached the last 16 at the 2019 Players Championship Finals. In his youth career, Meikle won six ti ...

3–1 in sets. He broke the record for the highest set average in a World Championship match by averaging 140.91 in the fourth and final set, missing double 12 for a nine-darter in the second leg of the set. Littler qualified for the final by defeating Meikle, Ian White,

Ryan Joyce Ryan Joyce (born 20 September 1985) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty-six. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2018, he has won two ran ...

and

Stephen Bunting Stephen Bunting (born 9 April 1985) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number four. Nicknamed "the Bullet", Bunting formerly competed in Brit ...

. In the final on 3 January 2025, Littler defeated three-time world champion

7–3 in sets. Aged 17 years and 347 days, Littler became the youngest ever PDC World Darts Champion, breaking the record previously held by van Gerwen, who was 24 when he won his first world title in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. Littler also won the ''Ballon d'Art'' trophy for the most 180s scored in the World Championship. He broke £1,000,000 on the PDC Order of Merit for the first time and moved up to a career highest ranking of second in the world, behind

. In March, Littler won the

UK Open The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. The event is often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts" as it has an unseeded open dr ...

for the first time; he defeated

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...

11–2 in the final. He had previously beaten

Jonny Clayton Jonny Clayton (born 4 October 1974) is a Welsh professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number five. Nicknamed "the Ferret", he has won four PDC major televised s ...

in the semi-finals and

in the quarter-finals. At the Belgian Darts Open, he retained the title he won in 2024 by defeating Belgium's

Mike De Decker Mike De Decker (born 15 December 1995) is a Belgian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", he won his first major title ...

8–5 in the final – his third European Tour title. On night seven of the 2025 Premier League, Littler hit his third televised nine-dart finish in the final against Michael van Gerwen before winning the match 6–4. He became the first player to record five nightly wins in a single Premier League season after his victory on night 13. He extended this record to six wins on night 16 and finished the league stage on 45 points – the highest amount of points earned in a Premier League season. On Finals Night on 29 May, he defeated

Gerwyn Price Gerwyn Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh professional darts player and former professional rugby union and rugby league player. He competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world ...

10–7 in the semi-finals and progressed to the final where he played Luke Humphries in a rematch of the 2024 final. However, Littler was unable to defend his title as he lost 11–8 to Humphries. He partnered Humphries for the first time at the

World Cup of Darts For the current edition see 2025 PDC World Cup of Darts The PDC World Cup of Darts is a team darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and was one of the three new tournaments introduced into the PDC calendar in 2010. It is ...

and the England duo were considered favourites to win the title, but they were defeated 8–4 by

Martin Schindler Martin Schindler (born 16 August 1996) is a German professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number eighteen. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2017, he has won four ra ...

and

Ricardo Pietreczko Ricardo Pietreczko (born 20 October 1994) is a German professional darts player. Nicknamed "Pikachu" after the character from ''Pokémon'', he competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number tw ...

of Germany in the second round.

Playing style

Littler has been noted for his heavy scoring during matches, frequently hitting the maximum score of 180. Using darts manufactured by Target with characteristically long 45mm points, Littler plays at a quick pace and is known for his efficiency in checking out on the double 10 segment.

In popular culture

Impact on darts

Following Littler's unexpected run to the final at the 2024 PDC World Championship, an unprecedented number of new fans began to both play and watch darts, and a record high of 3.7 million viewers watched the 2024 world final. The president of the Professional Darts Corporation,

Barry Hearn Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sports promoter who is founder and president of Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including boxing, snooker, darts, pool, tenpin bowling, gol ...

, attributed this phenomenon to Littler's success and described it as "Littlermania", while others have dubbed it the "

uke Uke or UKE may refer to: People * Billy "Uke" Carpenter, American musician * Billy "Uke" Scott (1923–2004), British musician * Uke Clanton (1898–1960), American baseball player * Ukë Rugova, Kosovar politician * Sıtkı Üke (1876– ...

Littler effect". Littler was named

in 2024, becoming the first darts player to receive the award. He also finished as runner-up for

behind

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

gold medalist

. In June 2025, Littler was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2025 Birthday Honours The 2025 King's Birthday and Operational Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Charles III, King Charles III to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good ...

for services to darts.

Media appearances

In January 2024, Littler revealed on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

that he was inspired to choose "

Greenlight In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the projec ...

" by

Pitbull Pit bull is an umbrella term for several types of dog believed to have descended from bull and terriers. In the United States, the term is usually considered to include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, American B ...

featuring

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), known professionally as Flo Rida ( ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 debut and breakout single "Low (Flo Rida song), Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the ...

and

LunchMoney Lewis Gamal Kosh Lewis (born January 11, 1988), better known as LunchMoney Lewis, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his 2015 single " Bills", which topped the charts in Australia and peaked within t ...

as his walk-on song after he and his father attended the 2017

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

event

WrestleMania 33 WrestleMania 33 was a 2017 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming List of WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming supercards, event produced by WWE. It was the 33rd annual WrestleMania and took place on April 2, 2017, at Camping Wo ...

, which featured "Greenlight" as its theme song. WWE later

tweeted A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...

an invitation to Littler for their upcoming

house show A house show (also commonly called a live event) is a professional wrestling event produced by a major Professional wrestling promotion, promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in o ...

the O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as The O2, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment district on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London, England. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the third-highest seat ...

in April, which he accepted, and

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American actor and professional wrestler. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE , where he is the current WWE Championship, Undisputed WWE Champion in his record 14th reign, which is ...

posted an uncaptioned picture of Littler on his famously cryptic

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

after Littler admitted to being a fan. Later that year, he was given a tour of WWE's headquarters

Titan Towers 1241 East Main Street, also known as Titan Towers, is an office building located in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It served as the global headquarters for the American professional wrestling and entertainment company WWE from 1991 to 20 ...

Undisputed WWE Champion The WWE Championship, also referred to as the Undisputed WWE Championship since April 2024, is a men's professional wrestling World championship (professional wrestling), world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American profe ...

Cody Rhodes Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes (born June 30, 1985) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. As of April 2022, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown (WWE brand), SmackDown brand. He is also known for co-fou ...

. In March 2024, he made an appearance on the 232nd episode of ''

The Jonathan Ross Show ''The Jonathan Ross Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2011 and airs on Saturday evenings following the conclusion of Ross' BBC One chat show, ''Friday Night with Jona ...

'' alongside

Rob Beckett Robert Anthony Beckett (born 2 January 1986) is an English comedian, actor, and presenter. He was a co-host on the ITV2 spin-off show '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' from 2012 to 2014. Since 2016, Beckett has been a team captain ...

Millie Bobby Brown Millie Bonnie Brown Bongiovi ( Brown; born 19 February 2004), known professionally as Millie Bobby Brown, is a British actress and producer. She gained recognition for playing Eleven (Stranger Things), Eleven in the Netflix science fiction ser ...

Liam Gallagher William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and co-founder of the rock band Oasis (band), Oasis and fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2010 to 2014, before starting a succes ...

Raye Rachel Agatha Keen (born 24 October 1997), known professionally as Raye ( ), is a British singer-songwriter. She first rose to prominence after signing with Polydor Records and subsequently releasing Dance music, dance singles and extended pla ...

, and

John Squire Jonathan Thomas Squire (born 24 November 1962)Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave'', Virgin Books, is an English musician, songwriter and painter. He was the guitarist for the Stone Roses, a rock band in w ...

. He was involved in a darts challenge where he played against Beckett, Brown, and Raye in a three-on-one

scoring SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

challenge. The three scored a total of 83, while Littler hit a score of 140. The clip went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

after viewers of the show were amused by his nonchalant reaction to Brown admitting to being a huge fan of him. That same month, he made an appearance on '' Fantasy Football League'' alongside

Stuart Broad Stuart Christopher John Broad (born 24 June 1986) is an English former cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team and was One Day and Twenty20 International captain. Broad was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ...

. Following his 2025 World Championship win, Littler paraded his trophy at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

during half-time of

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

's match against

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

on 19 January 2025. The

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

honoured Littler by renaming their stadium, the

Halliwell Jones Stadium Halliwell Jones Stadium is a rugby league stadium in Warrington, England, which is the home ground of the Warrington Wolves. It has also staged Challenge Cup semi-finals, the European Nations Final, the National League Grand Finals' Day, two g ...

, to the Luke Littler Stadium for one night only on 21 February 2025, the date of their opening home match of the

2025 Super League season The 2025 Super League season, known as the 2025 Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the 30th season of the Super League and 131st season of rugby league in Great Britain. Wigan Warriors are the defending champions, having beaten H ...

against the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French language, French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan language, Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. Despite being based in France the ...

Sponsorships

In February 2024, Littler signed a deal with fashion brand BoohooMAN to allow him to help promote the

Motor Neurone Disease Association The Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND Association) focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for those people living with or affected by motor neurone disease (MND) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. MND is also kno ...

, and signed a multi-year professional contract with Target Darts.

Personal life

As Littler rose to public prominence during the

, he was dating Eloise Milburn, who played darts on the PDC Women's Series in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

and

. They were criticised for their age difference, as he was 16 and she was 21 at the time. Milburn received abuse online and was called a "

gold digger A gold digger is a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional sexual relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience. Etymology and usage The term "gold di ...

"; her mother defended her, saying she was "very angry" about the "horrible stuff being posted online about my daughter.” Littler told ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' that he would "stick with ilburnwhether people like it or not". However, he ended the relationship in July 2024. Littler is a supporter of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club Manchester United and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club the Warrington Wolves. Following his victory over

in the last 16 of the 2024 World Championship, footballer

James Maddison James Daniel Maddison (born 23 November 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Tottenham Hotspur and the England national team. Maddison began his career with Coventry City before joining ...

invited him to watch

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

play

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

in a

match at the

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the home of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur in North London, replacing the club's previous ground, White Hart Lane. With a seating capacity of 62,850, it is the List of football stadium ...

. Littler is friends with

Twitch streamer An online streamer or live streamer is a type of social media influencer who broadcasts themselves online through a live stream to an audience. History Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could uplo ...

and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Morgan Burtwistle, better known as

Angryginge Morgan Burtwistle (born 13 November 2001), better known as Angryginge or Angryginge13, is an English Twitch streamer and YouTuber who is primarily known for creating ''FIFA'' and football content. As of June 2025, he had over 1.3 million f ...

. Littler has been seen in many livestreams and videos on Burtwistle's channel, where he plays football and ''

EA Sports FC ''EA Sports FC'' is a football video game franchise developed by EA Vancouver and EA Romania and published by EA Sports. It serves as the direct successor to their former ''FIFA'' series, which was discontinued following the termination of EA ...

''. On February 7, 2025, Littler played Burtwistle on livestream in a game of darts, where he won against Burtwistle, 3–2. In February 2025, Littler was made an honorary citizen of his hometown Warrington by

Warrington Borough Council Warrington Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Warrington, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Warrington has had a borough council since 1847, which has been reformed on several occasio ...

at a ceremony at the

Parr Hall The Parr Hall is the only surviving professional concert hall venue in Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. Location The Parr Hall and Pyramid Art ...

to recognise his contribution to the borough and his "outstanding achievements" in the sport of darts. Littler described the accolade as "a real honour".

World Championship results

WDF

* 2022: Third round (lost to

0–3) (sets)

PDC

* 2024: Runner-up (lost to

4–7) * 2025: Winner (beat

7–3)

Career finals

PDC major finals: 8 (5 titles)

PDC World Series finals: 4 (2 titles)

Performance timeline

WDF PDC PDC Premier League Darts PDC European Tour PDC Players Championships PDC World Series of Darts PDC Development Tour

Nine-dart finishes

Notes

References

External links

* *
Luke Littler player profile at Mastercaller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Littler, Luke 2007 births Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire English darts players Sportspeople from Runcorn Sportspeople from Warrington Professional Darts Corporation current tour card holders British Darts Organisation players PDC world darts champions Premier League Darts champions World Series of Darts winners Grand Slam of Darts champions UK Open champions PDC world youth champions Darts players who have thrown televised nine-dart games PDC ranking title winners PDC World Cup of Darts English team