DartsNews Podcast - “Decades ahead of his competition” – Luke Littler’s World Matchplay dominance makes 2026 clean sweep look inevitable

Luke Littler’s record-breaking defence of the World Matchplay has left DartsNews Podcast co-host Nic Gayer convinced that the world number one is “decades ahead of his competition” and increasingly likely to complete an unprecedented clean sweep of televised titles in 2026.

The 19-year-old averaged at least 109 in all five matches at the Winter Gardens, landed a nine-darter against Nathan Aspinall and demolished Gerwyn Price 18-9 with a 111.53 average in the final. His tournament average of 111.04 obliterated Phil Taylor’s previous record of 106.31, while his 66 maximums established another Blackpool benchmark.

Gayer delivered his verdict alongside fellow co-host Kieran Wood, who had spent all nine days reporting from inside the Winter Gardens. Wood described the mood surrounding Littler’s campaign as “ominous”, with Niko Springer, Aspinall and Price all producing strong performances without ever making the eventual champion appear truly vulnerable.

“In my opinion, Luke Littler is years, maybe even decades ahead of his competition,” Gayer said. Having backed Luke Humphries before the tournament, the German now believes Littler failing to win every major he enters this year would be a bigger upset than the teenager completing the sweep.

Springer arrived in Blackpool with genuine hopes of troubling the defending champion. The German delivered one of his finest televised performances and averaged 105.47, yet still lost 10-6 as Littler opened his title defence with a 109.53 average.

“Before his first game, there was a bit of talk about, you know, if Niko Springer turns up, he could push Littler,” Wood recalled. “It’s the first round, early doors. He’s not settled into the tournament and all that."

“And then Springer did turn up. He put one of his best TV performances ever in and Littler just wiped the floor with him. After that, you started to think, ‘This is only going one way.’ Then you see Humphries get knocked out, Van Gerwen get knocked out and Littler’s just motoring on," Wood continued. “People were pushing him as well. It’s not like he was thrashing people averaging 90. Aspinall was incredible against him. Springer played one of his best games on TV, Price in the final even. The question is: what do you do to beat him?”

Aspinall provided the closest examination in the second round. The former UK Open champion averaged 105.17, landed a 170 checkout and recovered from 8-5 behind to draw level at 8-8. Littler responded by winning the next three legs, finishing with a nine-darter, 14 maximums and the second-highest average in World Matchplay history.

“That is literally one of the best Matchplay games I’ve ever witnessed,” Wood said. “Throughout the whole Aspinall match, I didn’t really feel the drama was there in terms of the actual result."

“Yes, Aspinall was throwing everything at him. He hit the 170 and got back level at 8-8, but you always just kind of assumed Littler was going to win anyway," conceded the Welshman. “He is so good and he can turn it on so much higher than anyone else consistently over a long-format match that, no matter what they throw at him, he’s just going to win anyway.”

Gayer had resisted making Littler his automatic selection before Blackpool. He instead backed Humphries, the 2024 champion, to reclaim the Phil Taylor Trophy.

“You know, you just said that pretty much we already knew he was going to win the tournament,” Gayer replied. “I think that’s correct and still, I predicted Luke Humphries to win the trophy, which probably, as I said back then, was also because I just wanted to have a different outcome. I wanted to go for something else."

“I’m watching everything that’s on TV. I’m watching all the European Tours. I’m watching the floors where he’s obviously not playing, but still watching everything that is in darts, attending tournaments and doing the job that we do," Gayer continued. “I still thought there would be a scenario in which Luke Humphries would actually win the tournament. That has changed drastically because I will never predict someone else to win a major again as long as this is going on.”

Littler has won every televised PDC tournament he has entered in 2026, collecting the World Championship, World Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup of Darts and World Matchplay.

“The biggest upset we could have in PDC darts this year, when we’re talking about the big decisions, is if Luke Littler doesn’t win all the majors and doesn’t complete the clean sweep,” Gayer posed. “That would be a bigger upset for me than him actually doing it. I think that was something I only realised, as much as we already knew about him, during that week in Blackpool. It was just so breathtakingly good.”

The overall tournament average across a full 128-player Players Championship field generally falls between 90 and 92. Littler sustained 111.04 across 107 legs at the Winter Gardens, finishing at least 17 points above each opponent he defeated.

“If you look at the ProTours, we have that tournament average on DartConnect,” Gayer noted. “I think it’s always 90, 91 or 92. Luke Littler just averaged 111 over 107 legs at the Matchplay. That’s 20 points better than the average on a ProTour from 128 players, and those are the professionals. He’s 20 points better than that. That is decades ahead. He literally is decades ahead of the bigger-picture competition.”

Littler hit 66 maximums across the tournament, breaking the record of 64 he had established during his first title-winning campaign in 2025. His combination finishing proved equally damaging whenever opponents briefly matched his scoring.

“We know he can hit 180s for fun and his grouping is absolutely phenomenal, but also the finishing,” Gayer said. “Everyone who plays darts knows how difficult it is to hit those doubles and do those combination finishes. Every time he was on a finish like 87 and he went his treble 19, double 15 route, pop, pop, both darts in and it’s gone again.”

Gabriel Clemens witnessed the performance from inside the German commentary box. Although normally drawn towards established favourites such as Gary Anderson, Peter Wright and Raymond van Barneveld, the former World Championship semi-finalist found himself being won over as Littler reeled off another sequence of legs.

“He was watching Luke Littler in full flow,” Gayer recalled. “I think it was against Josh Rock, or was it in the semi-final? It doesn’t matter. He was watching him win about five legs on the spin within a few minutes, just checking everything out. He was sitting there saying, ‘Give me another five minutes and I’m going to be a Luke Littler fanboy,’ because it was just so good. That’s one of the best German darts players of all time, someone who can average 120 on the Ally Pally stage for a set, and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.”

Littler was still searching for improvement after averaging 113.68 against Aspinall. He had been operating around the 120 mark during parts of the match before his final figure dropped across the closing legs.

“The craziest thing was speaking to him during the week and he wasn’t content with his level,” said Wood, who'd spoken to Littler numerous times during the week in the press room. “He was talking about playing better and the fact he’s not at his best at the moment. Yes, he averaged 113 in one game, but he was averaging 120 for parts of it. He was disappointed that he finished on 113. It’s ridiculous.”

Away from the board, the teenager maintained the same relaxed routine that has accompanied his rapid rise. The Women’s World Matchplay had finished on the Sunday afternoon and Wood left the venue shortly after six o’clock to find food before the men’s final. Television coverage was due to begin at 7.30pm, with Littler and Price scheduled on stage at eight.

“Luke Littler was outside signing autographs,” Wood recalled. “He hadn’t even come in and started practising yet. It was less than two hours before he was on stage in the final of the second-biggest darts tournament in the world. He’s just the most laid-back top professional I’ve ever seen.”

Gayer suggested Littler could have been thinking about football cards, eBay or opening packs on Ultimate Team while averaging 115 on one of the hottest stages in darts.

“He does it and he doesn’t even look like it’s exhausting or anything,” he said. “Of course, there are sports that are more exhausting than darts, but up on one of the hottest stages in the game and playing 17, 18 or 20 legs at the highest level, it has to be exhausting at some point. But it’s not. He just goes up there, has a bit of fun and then he leaves again. I cannot even put it into words anymore. It’s just crazy.”

German commentator Elmar Paulke questioned whether Littler should be considered a once-in-a-lifetime talent. Having previously worked in tennis, Paulke watched Roger Federer emerge before Rafael Nadal quickly arrived to challenge him at the top of the sport.

Darts’ leading ranks have already become considerably younger, while Kaya Baysal and Mitchell Lawrie are among the prospects progressing through the junior system. Greater investment in youth development has widened the talent pool long before the sport has reached its technical ceiling.

“I don’t think anyone will be at this level like we’ve just seen at the Matchplay over a whole week anytime soon,” Wood said. “There’s a lot of quality talent coming through, which you can see by the fact that the top of the rankings are getting younger and younger, even now without thinking about Kaya Baysal, Mitchell Lawrie and all those boys coming up. But how many of them are going to threaten 120 averages at the Matchplay and average 111-plus over the whole week? I don’t think so.”

Gayer expects the next generations to benefit from stronger youth structures, technical development and a more professional approach to life away from the board.

“Darts is still such a young game and sport because we’ve only started taking the whole youth game and everything seriously over the last few years,” he said. “I think there is so much more potential in the technical development, all of that, maybe even players getting healthier, working on their bodies and all of that stuff. Just professionalism, to put it into one word. There’s so much more room to grow, but I absolutely cannot imagine that we will see anything close to Luke Littler in the next couple of years.”

Maintaining his motivation could eventually prove a greater challenge to Littler than the next wave of emerging players. “I think it’s mostly about how long he wants it,” Wood said. “If you are just turning up at every tournament and winning it, that motivation can wane quite quickly, I would imagine.”

“You’ve seen many, many great careers over all the years, but no one has ever managed to have a career without facing some sort of crisis, some sort of lull,” Gayer replied. “Maybe he’s the first one. If anyone is able, then it’s him.”

Littler must first secure his place at the Players Championship Finals. He has not entered a Players Championship event in 2026 and needs to break into the top 64 of the one-year ranking before Minehead.

The world number one cancelled a planned family holiday to Spain in order to enter the four remaining events in England, while two further appearances in Den Bosch could be added following the World Series of Darts Finals. The qualification mark had already passed £25,000 when the podcast was recorded.

“With only playing the English ones, I thought it could get a bit difficult,” Gayer admitted. “But now I think the information has come up that he’s going to play the Den Bosch ones if he wins the World Series of Darts Finals, which, as you know, I now predict him to win."

“He now has a goal. He’s not just playing on the ProTours and potentially getting bored because it’s the ProTour. Now he has something to strive for, another record to break, something historical to go for. I think that’s all Luke needs," added the German expert. “He can absolutely lock in on the ProTour as well, play his best game and then I think it’s over for everyone else. If he is playing the six tournaments, he will be in Minehead. Maybe he doesn’t even need to play the Den Bosch ones because he’s won all of the ones before.”

Littler only needs to finish 64th to qualify. His position would place him against the leader of the Players Championship Order of Merit in the opening round. “Imagine you are Wessel Nijman,” Gayer said. “You win however many he wins, six, seven, eight, maybe nine titles, have an absolutely historic season on the PDC floor and then you head to Minehead and the reward you get is facing Luke Littler in round one.”

“You’d be gutted, wouldn’t you?” Wood laughed.

Wood also posited the theory that the World Youth Championship could return to Littler’s schedule if the clean sweep remains alive. Beau Greaves denied him that title in the 2025 semi-finals, leaving one of the few eligible PDC trophies still missing from his collection.

“I spoke about that with my mate yesterday and we both agreed he would do it,” Gayer agreed. “I was already surprised that he went there last year. But with the fact that he went out in the semis to Beau Greaves, famously, so he couldn’t complete that, and then of course with him wanting to take absolutely everything he’s able to play, I think he would do it.”

The World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals remain between Littler and the televised clean sweep. He remains unbeaten across every televised PDC tournament he has entered in 2026.