Since teenager Luke Littler took the Alexandra Palace stage by storm in December 2023, darts has seen a huge increase in attention.
The 17-year-old breezed to the final of the PDC World Darts Championship where a record audience of over 4.8 million people tuned in to watch.
This figure was a 143 per cent increase on the 2023 final.
The significant interest of Littler saw him included in the Premier League line-up. The opening night, on Thursday, February 1, drew in a viewership of more than double the previous opening night in 2023.
This saw a peak of 667,000 with an overall of 910,000 tuning in to watch the teenage sensation, the highest ever viewership for the competition.
Littler has propelled the sport into new global heights and has inspired a new generation of darts players.
Traditionally, darts was a pub sport and so an introduction to the game from early ages was rare. However, there are now a number of growing members across darts academy’s thanks to Littler’s emergence on the global stage.
The Sidac Club is home to St Helens Darts Academy which sees around 90 youngsters turn up to play darts on a Monday evening.
The academy is recognised as one of the most prolific in the country.
Luke Littler makes it 2-2 and his local club goes wild.
St Helens Darts Academy is making some noise for “one of their own”. pic.twitter.com/zyRutKvb23
— Anton Toloui (@SkyAnton) January 3, 2024
Littler has also forced the PDC into rethinking their venue for the World Championships.
Currently, The Alexandra Palace has a limited capacity of 3,200 and tickets sold out by July.
Barry Hearn said: “It is one step at a time, I am not a gambler, but sometimes you get a curveball like Luke Littler and you have to rethink your strategy.
“We reckon we could sell 250,000 tickets for the World Championship and they wouldn’t fit in the Ally Pally.”
The Warrington superstar went on to win the Premier League, beating Luke Humphries in the final.
His continued success has kept eyes on the sport as the interest has not dropped since his introduction to the oche.
Tickets for the 2025 Premier League season have been snapped-up with several venues already having sold out and many with limited availability.
Night 12 will be hosted at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool next April with only a limited number of tickets still available.
