Luke Littler's true value to darts revealed as star's heroics lead to staggering increase in World Championship ticket demand

Teen superstar Luke Littler's impact on darts has led to demand for tickets for this year's World Championships soaring.

The 17-year-old's heroics at last year's PDC World Championships - where he made the final before losing to Luke Humphries - saw Littler become a household name, and this week he was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Experts now judge his value to darts as being more than £100m, whilst his feats last year have resulted in a staggering spike in demand for tickets for this year's Alexandra Palace tournament - which gets underway on December 15.

Data analysts at Vision4Sport dug into the numbers and uncovered a startling 83 percent increase in ticket demand thanks to the Luke Littler effect when comparing the volume of searches for tickets around the PDC World Darts Championship each year. In 2024 there were more than 379,000 searches, compared to the previous highest figure of 282,000 set up 2015.

Speaking to Vision4Sport, Professor of Applied Sport Finance Dr Rob Wilson has now compared Littler to former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney - who also burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old. He said: "I can see comparisons between Luke Littler and a young Wayne Rooney. The way he has taken darts by storm and is already the face of the sport, he is more recognisable now than anyone else.

“The fascinating thing is that he's activated a completely new audience for the sport. You have teenagers up to mid 20s that are now interested in or looking at darts as a result of Luke Littler because of his age, because of his profile, because of the fact that he's shaken things up and because he's different.

“New fans are engaging on digital platforms, which is great for Luke commercially and