Luke Littler sets number of World Darts Championship titles he’d be happy to win

Luke Littler feels he could match Phil Taylor’s World Darts Championship record of 16 titles, but would be happy with far fewer.

The 18-year-old continued his incredible domination of darts by winning a second World Championship title on Saturday night, hammering Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final at Alexandra Palace.

The Nuke has now launched three Ally Pally campaigns and his only defeat came in the 2024 final to Luke Humphries.

Taylor was 29 when he won the first of his 16 world titles, so Littler clearly has the chance to match or better the Power’s unbelievable record.

The world number one feels he can get there, but would be satisfied with less than half that amount.

‘Obviously it’s so far away. 14 to go, another 15 or 16 years I’d say,’ Littler joked. ‘If it happens it happens. I’ll be around for a very long time and I’m here to win.

‘Obviously it’s something any dart player could do. Me being so young and already picking up two of these, it’s 14 to go. It’s a long way to go but who knows if I could reach it? If I get five or six I’d be happy.

‘I think I could [win 16]. If I stayed around long enough and kept the hunger. Like Michael van Gerwen says, once the hunger goes, there’s no point playing. There’s a lot of hunger left inside of me.

Long before Littler won his second world title, Taylor felt he was more than capable of matching his record.

However, he did warn the Nuke that it would not be easy, for multiple reasons, including ‘Manchester United syndrome’.

‘If he wants to beat my world record, then he can go ahead and do it,’ Taylor said in January 2025. ‘It’s going to be difficult, to win 16 titles you are going to have to be in a lot of finals.

‘It’s a lot of darts, a lot of hotels, a lot of miles travelling. He’d have to play for the next 20 years to get close to my record and for 20 years he’s got to be dedicated and make sure he does everything right.

‘It’s difficult when you are young and you have money in the bank. I was 30 when I won for the first time, so I’d done all that before.

‘You get what I used to call the Man Utd syndrome – and Liverpool have got it as well – where everybody raises their game against you, so you have to be at your best in every round.

‘And it can take its toll on you. Especially when you get beaten because everyone questions you: “Why did he lose? What was wrong with him? Why has his bubble burst?”.

‘Everybody loves to see you up there, and then they love seeing you get knocked off as well. It’s how you take it, but I think he is mentally strong enough to deal with it.

‘I’ve had my day but I would have loved to play Luke at my best, we’d have had a cracking game. I think I’d have beaten him but I’m not sure!’

Littler was pleased to have the Ally Pally crowd cheering him on to his second World Championship title after a mixed response earlier in the tournament, including boos during his fourth round win over Rob Cross.

‘They turned on me but I still won my match and progressed to the quarter-finals,’ he said. ‘But anyone wants the crowd on your side and every since that happened the crowd have been on my side. Big respect to them. They paid their good money to cheer me on this time.’

Littler lost the first set of the match but then won the next seven on the spin, finishing the match with an average of 106.02 to Van Veen’s 99.94.

The Nuke lands the biggest prize in the history of darts, claiming £1m for his latest triumph while Van Veen has to settle for a very healthy runner-up cheque of £400,000.

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