"It's not criticism of his abilities and talents, it's just simple arithmetic": Luke Littler not even close to Phil Taylor as GOAT talk shot down

Luke Littler continues to astonish the darts world. The 19-year-old Englishman claimed the World Matchplay last weekend for the second year in a row by convincingly beating Gerwyn Price 18-9 in the final. With that, ‘The Nuke’ delivered another impressive performance and currently appears untouchable at the highest level.

The title in Blackpool once again underlined Littler’s exceptional form. In fact, the young world champion has won every PDC major played so far in 2026. That inevitably raises the question: is there any athlete right now as dominant as Luke Littler?

That debate featured prominently on Sky Sports’ podcast Love The Darts. Darts commentator Chris Murphy didn’t need long to decide on his answer. "It's a very difficult question, how do you measure dominance?" Murphy said. "Darts seems to have more majors than any other sport, if you're doing it on major titles, but then again if you just took the top four and made it fair, he wins what you might call the Grand Slam titles. He holds them all and he's on course to have a clean sweep of every title so of course he does. I think yes [he is the most dominant]."

Murphy also looked for comparisons outside darts and mentioned tennis player Jannik Sinner and golfer Scottie Scheffler, both world number one in their sports for some time. Still, he sees a clear difference. “Looking at other sports, we've mentioned tennis, Sinner maybe he's in the conversation," he said. "Scheffler in golf has been No 1 for a long time, but I don't think any of them get near Littler."

Former professional Laura Turner agrees. She also pointed to the remarkable fact that darts currently has an exceptionally dominant player in both the men’s and women’s game.

“It's very hard to say no [he isn't the most dominant] isn't it," Turner said. "From a women's darts point of view actually I think [Women's World Matchplay winner] Beau Greaves is unbelievably dominant, she's just picked up the Matchplay in Blackpool. She won 17 out of the 24 titles available in that qualification process as well. She's been on a run of 114 consecutive wins, it took Fallon [Sherrock] at a 102 average just to stop that run. Beau is very dominant. In darts at the moment I personally think we're very lucky, I know Beau is on the Pro Tour as well. I can't think of another sport where at this moment in time, anyone that is dominating in the way they are."

Despite all the superlatives, both Murphy and Turner believe Littler cannot yet be called the greatest darts player of all time. For now, Phil Taylor’s name remains unassailable. Taylor captured no fewer than sixteen world titles and set the standard in the sport for decades. According to Murphy, it’s simply a matter of time and honors. “Potential to best the greatest? Possibly, but I don't think it's especially close yet to be honest,” Murphy stated. “It's not criticism of his abilities and talents, it's just simple arithmetic I suppose. Phil Taylor's title tally, 16 world titles, spanning across four different generations of darts players, and he's had to reinvent himself for different games in different eras.”

Turner also warns against what she describes as the tendency to weigh recent achievements more heavily than historical success. “All of us suffer from recency bias. There's a lot of people don't forget that never engaged in darts to the level they are before Luke Littler came onto the scene,” she said. “Ultimately, Phil has played through different generations, I don't want to say mind games but you know you can get under people's skin a bit more."

According to Turner, that takes nothing away from Littler’s achievements. "Ability wise, and all the accolades he has won over all those years, you have to say Phil is the greatest ever darts player we've had. Luke Littler perhaps one of the most dominant sports people at this time."

For the time being, one conclusion seems justified. As long as Luke Littler maintains his current level, every opponent will have to wonder who can stop him. The English sensation appears to have the darts world firmly in his grasp for now.