How a 17-year-old darts player captured Britain’s hearts and minds

Forget Oasis, resale tickets on Friday morning for those desperate to get there were priced from $2000. Even though it was sold out, queues outside in the cold began accumulating an hour before the doors opened – nearly two hours before a dart was thrown.

“Littler has captivated people because he’s relatable,” Sky Sports darts presenter Emma Paton told The Athletic. “He’s taken the sport to different places … darts has never had this exposure before. It’s not even because of what he’s done in the sport, which has been ridiculous by the way, but it’s the impact he’s had on it.”

Littler burst onto the scene this time last year, only to go down in the final, which was watched by 3.71 million viewers at its peak – the largest non-football audience for a single event in the broadcaster’s history.

Viewers were up almost 200 per cent for some tournaments for his matches during the year; that record is expected to be eclipsed when Friday night’s figures are released.

“Wow … wow, I can’t believe it,” Littler said post-match, welling up. “Everyone dreams of lifting this trophy, and to actually do it is incredible. I want to get more than 10 titles this year, but if I end 2025 with nothing, I’ve picked the big one up.”

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At a press conference on Saturday, Littler said his immediate ambitions were modest: he couldn’t wait to go home “and get in my own bed”. He also revealed the one purchase he would like to make with his winnings: a Mercedes A-class.

“Last year I was looking at driving, and I loved the Ford Focus, but now I’ve gone up in the world just a little,” he said. It will need L plates, as he hasn’t managed to squeeze in driving lessons around all the darts practice. “I’ve always loved a Mercedes A-Class,” Littler said. “Just a small car.”

A year has passed since Littler’s emergence and the glow of the spotlight is still falling upon him as tightly as it was when he astonished the world at 16.

Google last month announced he was the most searched-for athlete in the UK last year, ahead of the likes of soccer stars Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal; in the “general” category, he was trending higher than Starmer.

He now boasts 1.7 million followers and counting on Instagram and has won £1,513,500 in prizemoney. Before Christmas, he was runner-up in the publicly voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, finishing behind Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson, who won the 800 metres on the track at Paris.

His rise to record-breaking success has come from a lifetime of practice – throwing his first magnetic darts at the tender age of 18 months.

Littler told the Guardian last year: “I told everyone I was actually in nappies when I started playing. I’m not sure they believed me.”

His parents then uploaded footage to YouTube, proving how young he was when he started in the sport. By the time Littler was eight, he was up against the adults.

Last month, it was revealed the family-oriented Littler moved his parents – dad, Anthony, a former taxi driver, and mum, Lisa, a sales assistant at a candle shop – and family from their modest £180,000 home to a £6000-a-month pad in his Cheshire hometown’s Millionaire’s Row.

Portly and sporting impressive facial hair, Littler could easily pass for being aged in his mid-20s and enter any establishment without ID.

There’s just one problem. He’s now world-famous for being 17.

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