(COLUMN) The Littler Expectation: Are we being too harsh on the 18-year-old world champion?

It feels like just yesterday that we witnessed a historic beginning to 2025 as Luke Littler clinched the PDC World Darts Championship title aged just 17, defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in the final at Alexandra Palace. This victory crowned him as the youngest world champion in darts history, and has set the expectations from the British public as sky high; perhaps too high.

Since winning the world title on his second attempt, Littler has celebrated his 18th birthday but has yet to secure his first title as the world champion. His tournament results over the last month have been mixed to say the least, leaving many fans begging the question when we will see the world number 2 pick up his next win.

But are we judging Littler too harshly? His first 12 months as a pro were electric, yes, but how did other former champions do in their year following winning the world championship for the first time?

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Littler’s first tournament after winning the world title was at the Bahrain Darts Masters two weeks on from his glory at Alexandra Palace. He advanced to the quarter-finals, where he faced Gerwyn Price, and to many fans’ surprise the Welshman had too much for him on the night and won 6-2.

The Dutch Darts Masters provided another opportunity for him to get back on top, but he was beaten by Stephen Bunting in the semi-finals. In the World Masters, Littler reached the Last 16 but was ousted by Jonny Clayton with a 4-2 scoreline, and it was after this performance that Littler started receiving some criticism.

In last week’s highly anticipated first night of the Premier League in Belfast, he faced Michael van Gerwen in a rematch of the World Championship final. Once again, MvG and Littler served up a classic contest, and despite an impressive average of 113.91, Littler narrowly lost 6-5.

Most recently, he competed in the Players Championship, where he reached the third round before crashing out against Joe Cullen. It was after this result that Littler snapped back at online trolls as he said, “Still earned a few quid today while these are sat at home charging their phones waiting for me to lose."

It’s almost as if Littler has become a world champion, and everyone has forgotten the topic that defined his first 12 months in the professional darts world: he’s still unbelievably young!

Perhaps it’s to be expected that once you show yourself as the best in the world, you lose some of the privileges that other young and up and coming players yet. But still, fans and the media alike mustn’t forget that most players his age aren’t facing the rest of the world’s elite week after week.

Looking at past world champions, Littler’s lack of immediate victories is far from unusual. Luke Humphries, the 2024 world champion, had a similarly mixed start to his title-holding season, and he did not win his first PDC World Series of Darts event until the 2024 New Zealand Darts Masters in mid-August.

Humphries’ first PDC Players Championship victory did not come until October, and in major tournaments, he was knocked out early in the Masters by Stephen Bunting and was beaten in the UK Open final by Dimitri Van den Bergh 11-10. And Humphries also did not pick up his first win on the Premier League circuit until Night 6 in Brighton.

However, Humphries still managed to win two European Tour events, the World Cup of Darts, the World Matchplay, a World Series event and the Players Championship Finals. Up until the Grand Slam of Darts, Humphries had a brilliant year as world champion, and his year should be a reminder to Littler and his fans that it can take a while to get used to the added pressure of being king.

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Michael Smith, the 2023 world champion, had a different trajectory to the two Luke’s. Like Littler, he had won the Grand Slam of Darts in the lead-up to his world championship success, and he also beat Michael van Gerwen in the Alexandra Palace final.

However, unlike Littler and Humphries, Smith secured another title almost immediately, winning the first edition of the Bahrain Darts Masters by defeating Gerwyn Price 8-6. Despite this fast start, incredibly, Smith has not won a ranked televised event since his world championship glory two years ago. So, take a sight of relief Littler fans, immediate glory after a world’s win isn’t always the best news!

Gary Anderson, the two-time world champion from Scotland, is looked at as one of the greats of darts, and his semi-final match with Littler at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts was an instant classic. Anderson first became world champion in 2015, and that same year, he also won the Premier League, however, that was the only other televised title he picked up before successfully defending his world title in 2016.

Michael van Gerwen, now a three-time world champion, first won his title in 2014 when he defeated Peter Wright 7-4. That year, he also claimed victories in the World Grand Prix and the European Championship, but there is one key difference between Van Gerwen and Littler. We must remember that the Dutchman was already one of the most dominant players in the world when he won his first title, unlike Littler, who is still very much in the early stages of his career.

Gerwyn Price, the 2021 world champion, won his title behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions and we’re sure he’d love to win that title again in front of the fans at Alexandra Palace. As world champion, he picked up two European Tour wins and the Grand Slam of Darts, before making it to the final of the World Grand Prix where he was beaten by Jonny Clayton.

So, what can we learn from previous champions? Littler should be in no rush whatsoever to claim his first title as world champion. The attitudes of players and fans towards him may be changing as he gets ‘older’ and more successful, but he should not panic if he struggles to find his best form over the next few months. The best is still yet to come, and Littler will be back on his A game in no time.

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