Wikipedia (en)
Luke Littler (born 21 January 2007) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is the reigning PDC world champion and currently ranked world number one. Nicknamed "the Nuke", he is the youngest world champion in darts history, having won the 2025 World Championship at 17 years and 347 days old. Littler has won six other major televised titles: the Premier League, Grand Slam and World Series Finals in 2024, and the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix in 2025. His seven major titles are the joint seventh-most in PDC history. He has won a total of 19 PDC titles in his professional career.
In his youth career, Littler won the 2023 PDC World Youth Championship, five PDC Development Tours and the 2022 World Youth Masters, as well as the Junior Darts Corporation's JDC World Darts Championship and JDC Super 16 twice each. Having played in British Darts Organisation and World Darts Federation events since he was 12, Littler won his first senior title at age 14. He competed in the 2022 WDF World Darts Championship, becoming the youngest player to win a match at a senior world championship, before going out in the last 16. After qualifying for the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship through his placement on the 2023 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 PDC world champions Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross—en route to the final, where he was defeated by Luke Humphries. In 2025, Littler reached the final for a second consecutive time, where he defeated Michael van Gerwen to win the title.
Littler is the youngest player to hit a televised nine-dart finish, which he achieved at the 2024 Bahrain Darts Masters, aged 16. He is also the youngest player to hit a recorded nine-darter, having achieved the feat in 2021 at age 14. Named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and finishing as runner-up for BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2024, his rise to prominence at age 16 led to an increased British 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, as well as his proficiency on the double 10 section of the board's outer ring.