‘I had no idea darts was so gripping’: the new fans attracted by Luke Littler

When Eilidh Milne was visited by her father and brother on Tuesday, she initially protested against their insistence on watching the darts world championship on television.

But Milne, 26, soon found herself on the edge of her seat, yelling at the TV and leaping into the air when the teenager Luke Littler, who had taken the tournament by storm, defeated the 2018 world champion, Rob Cross, in the semi-finals.

“I had no idea the sport could be so gripping, and it has definitely made me more interested in following darts in future,” Milne says, adding: “What I’m quickly learning about darts is that it really isn’t over until it’s over, the whole match can flip on its head over the course of a few minutes.”

Milne, an engineer based in London, is one of a new, younger generation of people with a burgeoning interest in darts. Long considered a sport for specialist fans rather than the wider public, darts is undergoing a step change and reaching a new audience. The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) semi-finals averaged a record-breaking 1.5 million viewers, with the Cross v Littler semi-final broadcast on Sky drawing a peak of 2.3 million viewers – a 165% increase on last year’s semi-finals, according to Sky Sports data.

Milne says she was disappointed that Littler lost the world championship final on Wednesday at Alexandra Palace to 28-year-old Luke Humphries. “I’ve always loved rooting for an underdog,” Milne says. But for a sport that skews older and male – she says it doesn’t always feel accessible to women – having a 16-year-old compete for the title “makes if feel more inclusive for the younger generation”.

‘Piling on the pressure’

When Omar Soliman went to a wine and cheese event on 30 December with his partner, Kaye Morrissey, the darts came on the TV after the football, which had been on in the background. Soliman, a 40-year-old writer from Stoke-on-Trent, wasn’t new to darts, but found himself, along with the rest of the room, being sucked into the drama involving Littler. They watched as he dispatched the former champion Raymond van Barneveld, a man more than three times his age, by four sets to one.

Soliman first became interested in darts about 10 years ago, he says, when his flatmate would put it on the shared TV. “We really got into it [after Christmas] into the new year, when we were both off work and nothing was really happening.” That was the era of Phil “The Power” Taylor, also from Stoke-on-Trent, and Soliman enjoyed how vital the enthusiastic crowd was in matches.

The best tournaments, Soliman says, are like a psychodrama. He began to enjoy the mental side of the game and “getting your trebles in, getting your doubles in, basically piling on the pressure”. He also found it thrilling how quickly a game could turn if the pressure became too much for one of the players.

And that was the appeal of Littler, Soliman says. Throughout the tournament he showed “he hasn’t got that fear, he can just play his own game and not worry about anyone else”.

After finding the tournament so compelling, Soliman says he and his friends have “made plans to get to Ally Pally in full fancy dress next Christmas”.

‘I love the individuality’

John Johansson, a 42-year-old from Örebro, Sweden, got into darts after reading a recent Swedish newspaper article about Littler, then watching his game against Van Barneveld. To decode the old sport’s rules he turned to a modern tool: ChatGPT. “I used it not only to understand the counting [down from 501 to zero], but why you aim at a certain number at a certain time,” he says.

Before watching his first match, Johansson assumed darts would be boring and monotonous, but he was drawn to the tactical skill of the players, the cheers and boos of the crowd and the big personalities of the dart-throwers. “I love the individuality of it,” he says.

Johansson has already started watching highlights of old games online, created alerts for Littler’s next fixtures, and plans to check out other darts professionals who are Swedish or women. “A mistake in this sport can be 1mm,” he says. “It’s very, very exciting.”

‘You don’t have to be Usain Bolt’

Lizzie Prince, a 59-year-old based in Brinklow, Warwickshire, first developed an interest in darts in the 1980s on a black-and-white TV, and was blown away by the skill of the greats of the era, such as Eric Bristow. “He was just amazing,” she says. “When I’ve played darts I’m absolutely rubbish – I’m lucky if I hit the bloody board!”

When she watches now, she says, it’s “lovely to see” the next generation in the audience at venues such as Alexandra Palace. “I like watching the crowd of the match because they tend to be young, which is quite surprising because we think of darts as being an older-person sport, [but] it’s all young people drinking and singing and wearing funny costumes,” she says. “It’s brilliant.”

Prince says darts professionals, unlike other sportspeople, exude a sense of authenticity and personality. “It brings it alive and makes them human, makes them fun,” she says. Plus, darts doesn’t demand the sculpted athleticism of other sports. There’s a meritocratic vein that promises, with enough practice, you can throw a decent dart. “That’s why I like darts, it’s more of a leveller, you don’t have to be Usain Bolt or Wayne Rooney,” she says.

Prince, who was rooting for Littler, says Humphries’ win is still good news for the sport, and hopes it helps to attract more new fans. “You can’t not smile or laugh, you just want to be part of it,” she says.