Teenage darts sensation Luke Littler’s heroics in the PDC World Darts Championship has helped deliver a record audience for the sport.
Last night’s (January 2) semi-finals, in which the 16-year-old defeated Rob Cross and Luke Humphries beat Scott Williams, drew an average audience of 1.48 million on pay-TV giant Sky.
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This made it the biggest-ever audience for a darts match, surpassing previous PDC World Championship events, including finals.
Littler’s semi-final win over Cross averaged 1.79 million with a peak of 2.32 million, which is up 165% on last year’s semi-finals.
BREAKING..the record viewership for darts was 1.65m for Taylor v Anderson in 2015 Last night Littler v Cross smashed the record with 2.32m audience! Bigger than the Ashes, bigger than the Ryder Cup let’s break 3m tonight for the final @OfficialPDC 🔥 🎯
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) January 3, 2024
The figure is also a 106% increase on the previous semi-final record set in 2017, when Dutchman Michael van Gerwen and Cross made it to the final.
It is also a 40% rise from the most-watched final in 2015 when it is claimed that 1.65 million watched Gary Anderson defeat Phil Taylor.
Littler’s quarter-final win against Brendan Dolan had previously set the record as the most-viewed match in the history of the World Darts Championship.
The record viewership figure is expected to be broken again tonight as Littler faces Humphries in the final.
Littler is aiming to become the youngest-ever winner of the PDC World Darts Championship.
