Luke Littler has revealed that reliving his upset in the 2024 World Darts Championship against Luke Humphries has propelled him to become the youngest world champion in 2025.
Littler beat Michael van Gerwen in Friday’s final at Alexandra Palace, leading 4-0 before the Dutchman fought back to bring the score back to 5-2.
From there, Littler found another gear and cruised to a 7-3 victory to become the youngest winner of the World Darts Championship, surpassing his rival who won it at the age of 24 in 2014.
The moment comes just 12 months after Littler failed to find a win on his debut at Alexandra Palace, with the 16-year-old suffering a heartbreaking 7-4 defeat to Luke Humphreys.
With that in mind, Littler admitted he watched the 2024 saga at 1pm on Friday, around seven hours before the 2025 final, and that he had “visions” of fulfilling his destiny and lifting the Sid Waddell Cup.
“I learned a lot,” Littler said. “Last year in the semi-final against Rob Cross, that was the first time I was 1-0 down, and then obviously against Luke.”
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Luke Littler reveals he watched his World Darts Championship defeat to Luke Humphries in last year’s final before his win over Michael van Gerwen
“Nobody will know it, but earlier today I watched the whole match against Luke and I had the visions.”
When asked how rewatching that game helped him, Littler admitted that he needed to relive difficult moments in order to learn from his mistakes.
“I kind of knew what went wrong last year. But just to recap and review the mistakes I made, it was probably the right thing to do,” he added.
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Luke Littler finds 124 at bullseye in the seventh set of the World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen
“Obviously D2 [miss] “It was huge because I said to my family that if I go 5-2 I’m almost world champion, but Luke won the next five sets and got the trophy.”
“I don’t think I would have done anything differently [this year]. But just coming out of the break and seeing the fans singing, you just get into it.
“When I was 4-0 up, I had to keep going because I knew he was there with me all the way.”
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Michael van Gerwen got a set on the board with a brilliant 132-point finish in the World Darts Championship final against Luke Littler
MVG hugs Littler and tells him to keep crying!
Despite not performing well, Van Gerwen was always gracious in defeat and described Littler as a “star”.
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Michael van Gerwen praises ‘star’ Luke Littler after his defeat to the 17-year-old in the World Darts Championship
As the game’s legend and its newest star embraced after the final, the Dutchman asked Littler to embrace the emotions of victory on the biggest stage of all.
“He said, ‘Well done,’ but when he was on the side he was like, ‘Keep crying, boy, keep crying!’” Littler said.
He added: “Michael deserves a lot of respect for this world championship. Obviously everyone was looking at me and Luke Humphries, but Michael’s side of the draw was not easy and it was not easy for me.”
He added: “For us, reaching the final was a big achievement, but for me to come out a winner is even better.”
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