Luke Littler defends World Darts Championship crown to bank massive prize money

Luke Littler has become the first player to defend his World Darts Championship final since Gary Anderson in 2016, by breezing past Gian van Veen in the final at Alexandra Palace.

The World number one came out as 6-1 winner over his Dutch opponent to seal the crown and pocket the £1 million prize money. It adds to his career £1,970,500 earned by Littler over the last two years.

The 18-year-old comfortably made it through the latter stages of the competition to book his place in the final. He overcame Krzysztof Ratajski 5-0 in the quarter-final before beating Ryan Searle 6-1 in the semi-final.

The final was full of incidents, including the return of the infamous Ally Pally wasp, and the board being stained by Van Veen's blood after a small cut on his hand.

But the overriding theme was the dominance of Littler, who made no mistake from the final double 20 to win the tournament.

The teenager appeared emotional in the moments following the final darts. He was soon celebrating again when he got his hands on the trophy for the second year running.

In winning the tournament back-to-back, Littler becomes just the fourth player to do so. It comes after he won six major tournaments in 2025, with the new year getting off to the perfect start.

Speaking to Sky Sports after lifting the trophy, Littler said: "I started playing a bit better from there (set three), obviously the first set, I wasn't happy going into the break 1-0 down, but I just had to kick on from there.

"I said to myself again just give it time, you'll find it. I started off at the left of the oche, I moved over to the right and it all came to plan.

"Gian, what a tournament, he can be very happy with himself, in every set, he was there, he was behind me and I