World Darts Championship final LIVE!
Luke Littler thrashed Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at Alexandra Palace to become the youngest-ever darts world champion and bank a £500,000 winner's cheque. Littler, 17, raced into a four-set lead as comparative veteran Van Gerwen, 35, struggled to find his rhythm in his seventh world final.
Van Gerwen, who set the previous record for youngest world champion as a 24-year-old in 2014, showed he was still in the fight by taking the fifth set and then raised his game to pull back to 5-2 but Littler whitewashed the next set to restore his advantage to 6-2.
Another set to the Dutchman only postponed the inevitable as Littler romped through the final set to get his hands on the mighty Sid Waddell Trophy, with the pent-up emotion finally released with tears on the stage as he hugged his mum. Read back Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen below with Standard Sport’s dedicated blog.
World Darts Championship final latest updates
- Littler wins first world title
That’s all from us tonight. Thanks for following along for what was a historic final.
A final look at those final stats, then.
Littler with a 102.73 average, Van Gerwen also in triple figures with 100.69.
Van Gerwen hit 13 maximums, to Littler’s 12.
Litter won 25 legs, to Van Gerwen’s 14.
More from Michael van Gerwen
22:19 , Alex Young“When you get chances early doors you have to take them. I went 4-0 behind and after that I thought I wasn't doing myself any justice, but that's the way it is ... every chance he got and every moment he had to hurt me, he did.
"I had a lovely tournament and I enjoyed every moment of it. We all know I've come from a far distance and I've been battling my own game, but at the beginning of the game I was letting myself down too much and when you do that against a player with his ability, you're going to be in trouble.
"You have to take it on the chin, move on and walk off the stage as a champion. I always take my hat off to the people that beat me and if they beat me in a good game, fair play to them. That's how sport works."
Michael van Gerwen to Sky Sports
22:15 , Alex Young"I'm 35, he's 17. Every 17 years, a star gets born.
"He deserves it, he played well. It hurts, but that's how it should be. If it doesn't hurt, you're not going to be a sportsman.
I have to move on and make sure I keep playing better."
Luke Littler to Sky Sports
22:06 , Alex Young"I can't believe it.
"I've said in interviews that I needed to get off to a quick start tonight and that's what I did. But he was behind me the whole game.
"Everyone dreams of lifting this trophy ... At 2-0 up [in the final set] I started getting nervous but I said to myself to just relax. I was throwing for the match and to get it over and done with then was special."
It’s been quite a year for Luke Littler.
Premier League champion, World Series Finals champion. Grand Slam of Darts champion, World Darts Championship champion.
He’s 17.
“I’m an old bastard compared to him!”
For the second night running, Van Gerwen with the quote of the night.
What a moment.
A cool £500,000 to Littler, then. When that is announced, he puffs out his cheeks. Don’t blame him.
Van Gerwen gets £200,000, so it ain’t all bad.
LITTLER WINS FIRST WORLD TITLE!
21:55Stunning, just stunning. Another triple T19 sets up D16 for gold... AND IT’S THERE!
The generational talent beats the old(er) master. Instant tears and then a handshake with Van Gerwen.
He can’t believe it, we all can. The greatest darts player in the world!
Littler 6-3 Van Gerwen (2-0)
21:52 , Alex YoungLittler hits T19 three times to leave 62. He’s racing to gold, here, as he finds tops to go one leg away.
One. Leg. Away. And on serve.
Littler 6-3 Van Gerwen (1-0)
21:51D10 is being found time and time again by Littler, he misses tops but returns to ol’ faithful to win the first leg.
Littler 6-3 Van Gerwen (1-3)
21:50 , Alex YoungA break of serve and is this some momentum for Van Gerwen?
He takes the ninth, and the deficit is back to three.
Littler 6-2 Van Gerwen (1-2)
21:48 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen efficiently leaves 16 for a comfortable hold of serve, and finds D8 at the first time of asking with Littler still at 250.
Littler 6-2 Van Gerwen (1-1)
21:47Van Gerwen continues to find trebles with so much more ease than the first sets of the match, but here’s Littler again to throw more bombs with a hold of serve at tops.
Littler 6-2 Van Gerwen (0-1)
21:45 , Alex YoungLittler misses the bull for a 164 checkout and a break of throw, leaving Van Gerwen needing to clean up from 89... and he does.
Van Gerwen with a 109 set average, then. Littler with 113.
Madness.
Littler just nodded in response to going one away as Van Gerwen scurried off the stage.
Does this teenager not feel nerves?
Littler 6-2 Van Gerwen (3-0)
21:39 , Alex YoungCan Van Gerwen break back? He hits 180 to get ahead of the throw, then leaves himself a 92 checkout... which he can’t get started on.
Littler mops up from 58 to win the eighth set. He’s one away.
Littler 5-2 Van Gerwen (2-0)
21:37 , Alex YoungLittler hits 177 to leave 50 against serve and then finds tops to break Van Gerwen, who just nods in response.
Littler 5-2 Van Gerwen (1-0)
21:35 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen’s scoring is getting better and better but nothing can stop Littler finding D10 for, I think, the 854th time tonight.
They’re back out. Van Gerwen needs to start breaking Littler’s serve but he throws first time this.
Littler 5-2 Van Gerwen (2-3)
21:31 , Alex YoungAnother serve and another hold for Van Gerwen, but this is the biggest yet as he takes the seventh set!
A huge roar from the Dutchman as he finds tops for a 13 darter.
Littler 5-1 Van Gerwen (2-2)
21:29 , Alex YoungLittler finds the max and that’s the 20th of the game, and doesn’t look back. Littler holds serve and we’ll have a decider.
Littler 5-1 Van Gerwen (1-2)
21:28 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen is starting to find some form as he hits another 12-dart leg to take the lead in the set. Littler on serve next...
Littler 5-1 Van Gerwen (1-1)
21:26 , Alex YoungLittler pins the bull for a 124 checkout, and that really is special.
Van Gerwen left on a ton.
Littler 5-1 Van Gerwen (0-1)
21:24 , Alex YoungMVG back on the board with another fairly unconvincing hold of serve. That’s six on the trot on serve, but his start to the match has put him in a world of trouble.
Littler 5-1 Van Gerwen (3-2)
21:22 , Alex YoungYes. Littler is two away as he takes out 35 on D10.
Littler 4-1 Van Gerwen (2-2)
21:22 , Alex YoungWell, MVG holds in 15 darts to take this to a decider. He’s just about staying in touching distance, but has too much damage already been done?
Littler 4-1 Van Gerwen (2-1)
21:20 , Alex YoungOh, nevermind, a 12-dart leg from Littler and he’s cruising again.
Littler 4-1 Van Gerwen (1-1)
21:20 , Alex YoungLittler misses a dart at tops to let Van Gerwen clinch a nervy leg on D1. He’ll take what he can get.
Littler 4-1 Van Gerwen (1-0)
21:17 , Alex YoungNot for the first time, Littler hits maximum with the first darts of the set... and then hits another to leave him on a nine...
But sends his seventh dart into T1. He’s a full visit ahead of MVG and wins the leg in 13 throws.
MVG’s average is back above 100, but Littler’s was 107 in that set.
Littler 4-1 Van Gerwen (1-3)
21:12 , Alex YoungHe breaks and Van Gerwen has lift-off as he wins the fifth set!
Littler 4-0 Van Gerwen (1-2)
21:10 , Alex YoungAnother D10 finish from Van Gerwen and this is now some improvement. He’s against throw next, though.
Littler 4-0 Van Gerwen (1-1)
21:07 , Alex YoungA first ton-plus finish of the match as Littler checks out on 130. Van Gerwen still to show much improvement with his average down at 94.47.
Littler 4-0 Van Gerwen (0-1)
21:05 , Alex YoungEach with a maximum to kick things off, and then Van Gerwen finds T19 twice to set up a 53 checkout.
He needs this... and misses D20 once again. Littler can’t clean up... but MVG finds D10 at the third attempt to get on the board.
What has Van Gerwen got in him? Time for set five.
Surely no way back for Van Gerwen now?
Littler let a 4-2 lead slip in last year’s final, but not tonight’s dominance.
Littler 4-0 Van Gerwen (3-1)
21:00 , Alex YoungAnother set dart missed from Littler, another bull missed for 170.
Van Gerwen gets the chance on D8 but busts his score for the second time! This is remarkable, and for all the wrong reasons.
D10 does it for Littler and a 4-0 set lead.
Littler 3-0 Van Gerwen (2-1)
20:57 , Alex YoungSome needed composure from MVG to land another maximum and leave him with a 70 checkout, but he misses D16.
Littler then misses it twice! Van Gerwen finally wins just his third leg on D8.
Littler 3-0 Van Gerwen (2-0)
20:55 , Alex YoungLittler hits his third 180 and leaves 88... and he checks out on D7.
I can’t keep up, and neither can MVG.
Littler 3-0 Van Gerwen (1-0)
20:54 , Alex YoungBull then D10 and Littler is strolling to victory here!
Van Gerwen cannot find a double, his head has gone you fear.
Littler 3-0 Van Gerwen (3-1)
20:52 , Alex YoungFor three legs on the trot, Littler goes for a 170 checkout and again goes within millimetres.
No matter though as D10 is found to make it 3-0.
Littler 2-0 Van Gerwen (2-1)
20:51 , Alex YoungLittler misses D10 once but lightning doesn’t strike twice and he’s on serve to win the third set.
Van Gerwen is all over the place.
Littler 2-0 Van Gerwen (1-1)
20:48 , Alex YoungSmart from Van Gerwen to break against serve... but he misses tops three times!
A huge let-off for Littler, who has a 40 checkout and eventually mops with on D5.
Littler 2-0 Van Gerwen (0-1)
20:46 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen’s second dart of the third set pops out of T20, which just about sums things up for him at the moment.
But Littler finds 5, not for the first time, to give him some breathing space and Van Gerwen finally gets another leg on the board.
Those averages have improved.
- Littler: 115.62
- Van Gerwen: 113.67
Time for the third set.
Littler 2-0 Van Gerwen (3-0)
20:40 , Alex YoungA big, long pause from MVG after finding T20, but he then follows it up with two more.
But, hey, there’s Littler to miss tops and then find, you guessed it, D10.
Already looking a bit ominous for Van Gerwen.
Littler 1-0 Van Gerwen (2-0)
20:38 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen has two goes at tops to win the leg on serve, misses both and Littler walks up and hits it for an 11-dart leg.
Littler 1-0 Van Gerwen (1-0)
20:36 , Alex YoungVan Gerwen with the third 180 of the match, which Littler follows up immediately with his first maximum to set up a 121 checkout... that is missed by millimetres.
No matter, though, as D10 comes to his rescue.
Littler with a first-set average of 93.28 to Van Gerwen’s 91.35.
Nowhere near the best, clearly.
Littler 1-0 Van Gerwen (3-1)
20:31 , Alex YoungAnother 180 from Gerwen to get things underway but Littler again wins against serve with another D10 to claim the first set.
Neither player will be happy with their first set, especially Van Gerwen.
Littler 0-0 Van Gerwen (2-1)
20:29 , Alex YoungOoof, are we just seeing nerves here? Littler misses two set darts, 14 and 7, to give Van Gerwen to clean up with a 52 check out.
Littler 0-0 Van Gerwen (2-0)
20:27 , Alex YoungMVG really isn’t at it yet. Littler is hardly cooking but he cleans up on D10 to take a 2-0 lead.
Littler 0-0 Van Gerwen (1-0)
20:24 , Alex YoungA stuttering start of sorts for both, as Van Gerwen opens with a ton and Littler cannot take advantage.
MVG soon hits the first maximum to leave 25... but he busts! Littler has 140 but can’t take advantage.
Van Gerwen has 8 to clean up, misses again and Littler breaks with tops!
Game on! Van Gerwen throws first...
Some boos for Van Gerwen when first being announced, but they soon subside as ‘Seven Nation Army’ gets belted out.
Fist bumps for the referees, a handshake for Littler.
A big smile from Littler as he struts on the stage to ‘Greenlight’.
And now, the Green Machine...
Here comes Luke Littler!
Right then. Almost time for the walk-ons. Almost time for ‘game on’.
The pair are in the practice room together and share a handshake or two.
Van Gerwen will throw first in the final.
The final is set to begin at 8.15pm.
Both men are in the building. The clock is ticking.
Right, for the uninitiated, here’s what you need to know ahead of the final.
It’s a best-of-13 game, which basically means the first person to win seven sets.
To win a set, they must win three legs.
To win a leg, it’s the first player to clear 501 and finish on a double.
Littler has been clearing 501 with 12 darts or fewer throughout the tournament.
Clear(ish)?
We’re about 10 minutes away from the walk-ons.
Ally Pally is already going off.
Huw Ware to call in the winner
19:44 , Alex YoungHuw Ware tonight makes history as the first openly gay referee for a PDC World Darts Championship final.
"Kirk Bevins will be refereeing the first half of the final and I will be refereeing the second half," Ware wrote on his blog yesterday.
"To be honest tomorrow will be the biggest day of my life. I’ve been with the PDC for eight years now and it will be one of the biggest honours of my life to take charge of the second half and call in the champion."
He added to OutSports: "It's difficult to put into words ... I take this as confirmation that it’s all been worthwhile and that they have every confidence in what I do."
Hey everyone, here's my latest blog from the @OfficialPDC World Championships. Tonight is going to be the biggest night of my life. I hope everybody enjoys!
— Huw Ware (@HuwWare100) January 3, 2025
https://t.co/eGmvtfMyBa
Not long now.
180 masters
19:31 , Alex YoungLuke Littler's power scoring has helped him through to the final.
The 64 180s he has thrown is a tournament high, while also boasting the highest three-dart average with 102.13.
Life might have been even more comfortable for him had he been clinical on the doubles, as he currently has a 41 per cent checkout rate, though he has taken out the 'big fish' 170.
Van Gerwen is second in the race for the Ballon d'Art, having thrown 43 maximums so far. His average is slightly below Littler's on 99.75 but he has a better checkout rate at 44 per cent.
In any other year, these numbers would make him the standout player in the tournament, but not now Littler is in town.
What Littler has said
19:23 , Alex Young"It has been an amazing tournament so far. I have just beaten what's in front of me and I am glad to get through [to the final].
"I have won plenty of titles leading up to this, that is what we do, we lead up to the big one, I can't wait.
"If we both turn up like we did [in the semi-finals] it's going to be really good. We all know he is hunting another title, but I'm hunting for my first."
What Van Gerwen has said
19:16 , Alex Young"I'm in the final, I've won f*** all yet, I need to make sure I do it in the final.
"I am here with a mission, with a target, you are always going to have ups and downs, [against Dobey] I showed maturity, even when I wasn't at my best I produced some good stuff at the right moments and that gives me confidence.
"To win in the semi-final means a lot to me. What do I always say, we are not even close yet, we are still so far away.
"The title is still far away, that is what I have to tell myself, I don't want to make mistakes, I want to keep battling."
The prize
19:08 , Alex YoungThe Sid Waddell Trophy is why we are all here, named after the 'Voice of Darts' due to his status as the iconic commentator for the sport for around 40 years until his death in 2012.
Head to head
19:00 , Alex YoungThese two really couldn’t be much closer.
HEAD TO HEAD!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 3, 2025
Here's how the two finalists compare in their matches against each other.
It is so even 😬 pic.twitter.com/PzbbgvDb1v
Prediction
18:52 , Alex YoungSo, what do we think will happen tonight?
Having canvassed opinion, it seems Littler is the confident pick in what may not be too close an affair at Ally Pally.
I think ‘The Nuke’ will win his first world title tonight, but Van Gerwen will push him all the way.
Littler to win, 7-5.
Match odds
18:45 , Alex YoungThe bookies have 'Wonder Boy' Luke Littler as the odds-on favourite to make history tonight.
Van Gerwen, into a seventh showpiece event at Ally Pally, with only the great Phil Taylor making more, is bigger than 2/1 in places.
- Luke Littler: 4/9
- Michael van Gerwen: 9/5
(Odds via William Hill, subject to change.)
Van Gerwen route to the final
18:39 , Alex YoungIt's been more straightforward for Michael van Gerwen on his way to the final.
An easy 3-0 win over James Hurrell kicked things off in the second round, before Brendan Dolan and Jeffrey de Graaf were both dispatched 4-2 in the third and then fourth round.
A quarter-final with Callan Rydz was a barnstormer, however. Rydz won more legs, hit more 180s, had a better checkout percentage and had higher average score across the eight-set thriller, which Van Gerwen won 5-3.
When someone told Van Gerwen of those stats after the match, he simply held up three fingers on one hand and five on the other.
And it didn't faze him last night in the semi-finals when he hit a 180 with his first three throws of the dart on his way to a 6-1 thrashing of Chris Dobey.
Littler route to the final
18:28 , Alex YoungLittler entered the tournament as favourite, but has not had it all his own way during the last two weeks.
Sluggish starts against both Ryan Meikle (beat 3-1) and Ian White (beat 4-3) raised initial doubts over the teenager, before Ryan Joyce gave him a scare in a 4-3 win to reach the quarter-finals.
Littler looked back to his confident best in a 5-2 win over Nathan Aspinal on Monday and simply blew Stephen Bunting away 6-1 in last night's semis.
Prize money
18:20 , Alex YoungThe total prize money on offer at the 2025 World Darts Championship is £2.5million.
As has been the case since 2019, the winner will take home £500,000. For the runner-up, it is a consolation prize of £200,000, as Littler found out last year.
Should either player make a nine-darter tonight, Paddy Power will provide a £60,000 bonus, with the same amount also going to Prostate Cancer UK and a random member of the Ally Pally crowd.
Winner: £500,000
Runner-Up: £200,000
Semi-Finalists: £100,000
Quarter-Finalists: £50,000
Fourth round: £35,000
Third Round: £25,000
Second Round: £15,000
First Round: £7,500
Last night
18:12 , Alex YoungLittler is through to his second successive final, after the 17-year-old hammered Stephen Bunting 6-1 in an emphatic last-four victory on Thursday night.
Littler has been the favourite throughout the tournament and after a slow start he looks to be finding his best form at the right time.
The way he demolished the former BDO world champion Bunting showed exactly why he has taken the world of darts by storm as he averaged over 105, threw 13 180s and took out three ton-plus finishes, including a 'big fish' 170.
Van Gerwen was also in ruthless mood, dropping only one set himself as he eased past Chris Dobey with a masterful 6-1 win of his own to book his place in the final of this tournament for the seventh time.
After a wretched 2024, where he failed to win a televised major tournament and slipped behind Littler and Luke Humphries in the reckoning, Van Gerwen is now one victory away from re-establishing himself at the top of the sport.
How to watch the World Darts Championship final
18:05 , Alex YoungTV channel: The final will be available to watch on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Darts. Coverage begins at 7:30pm.
Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers will also be able to watch the action live online through the Sky Go app.
Welcome
17:58 , Alex YoungWell, this is it, 20 days on from the first round of matches, we now have just two players remaining in the world final most wanted to see.
It’s almost the master vs the apprentice, and certainly the biggest name in the sport taking on the new biggest name in the sport as Michael van Gerwen looks to stop teenager Luke Littler’s meteoric rise, both in darts and across the sports sphere.
The final of the World Darts Championship is scheduled to begin around 8pm GMT at the iconic Alexandra Place. Stick us with.
