Luke Littler’s remarkable World Matchplay record: Half of his matches rank among the 25 highest averages ever

Luke Littler has played only eight matches at the World Matchplay, but four of his performances already rank among the 25 highest averages in the tournament’s history.

Five of those eight appearances have produced averages above 105, while his overall record stands at seven victories and only one defeat.

No player other than Phil Taylor occupies more places on the all-time top-25 list.

Littler’s latest entry came during his extraordinary 11-8 victory over Nathan Aspinall. The defending champion averaged 113.68, hit 14 maximums and opened the match with a nine-darter before narrowly missing double 15 for another perfect leg in the fourth.

Littler’s 113.68 is the second-highest average across the 33 editions of the World Matchplay. Only Taylor’s 114.99, recorded during a 10-6 first-round victory over Barrie Bates in 2010, remains above it.

The updated all-time list compiled by The Red Bit gives Littler four of the leading 25 performances:

Littler has therefore placed half of his eight World Matchplay performances inside the top 25. His 107.24 against James Wade in the 2025 final narrowly misses the current list but takes his number of 105-plus averages to five.

His other two victories during last year’s title run came with averages of 99.28 against Jermaine Wattimena and 103.91 against Andrew Gilding. Littler’s only defeat at the tournament remains his 10-6 loss to Michael van Gerwen on debut in 2024.

Taylor dominates the historical standings with 13 of the top 25 averages. His entries stretch from the 1997 first round through to the 2013 final and include four performances above 111.

Littler is already second on the list with four entries, despite appearing at only three editions of the tournament. Peter Wright is the only other player represented more than once, courtesy of his 110.37 against Van Gerwen in the 2021 semi-finals and 108.13 against Kim Huybrechts in the 2015 opening round.

Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Krzysztof Ratajski each appear once.

Littler’s two performances at the 2026 tournament both sit inside the top 11. His 109.53 against Springer was briefly the second-highest average of this year’s competition behind Anderson’s 109.96, before the world number one moved beyond both figures against Aspinall.

The 113.68 also lifted Littler above Taylor’s 113.43 against Gary Mawson in 1997, which had occupied second place for almost three decades.

Littler will next face Rock in a repeat of their 2025 World Matchplay semi-final. That match produced one of Littler’s four top-25 averages, as well as the first of his two nine-darters at the Winter Gardens.

Rock averaged 104.15 and hit 14 maximums but was beaten 17-14 as Littler recovered from 5-0 behind. The eventual champion finished with a 107.50 average, 15 maximums and an 11-dart winning leg.

Their latest meeting comes over a first-to-16 format on Thursday night. Littler enters the quarter-final having averaged 109.53 and 113.68 in his opening two matches, with two of his eight career appearances in Blackpool now sitting among the 11 highest averages the World Matchplay has seen.