Michael van Gerwen
Luke Littler
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Michael van Gerwen leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Michael van Gerwen at #2 and Luke Littler at #12.
Head-to-head FAQ
Who leads more shared metrics?
How do the published ranks compare?
Are these live stats?
The case for Michael van Gerwen
The best player of the post-Taylor era and the most naturally gifted thrower the sport has seen. Van Gerwen won the Winmau World Masters in 2006 at 17, becoming the youngest world champion of any description at the time, then took three PDC world titles in 2014, 2017 and 2019 from five finals, seven Premier League crowns and three World Matchplays among more than 25 televised majors. His statistical peak is unmatched: the highest televised three-dart average in history, 123.40 against Michael Smith in the 2016 Premier League, and the highest average in a World Championship final, 114.05 in the 2017 win over Gary Anderson. He held the world number one ranking continuously for roughly seven years from early 2014. Where Taylor's dominance was built on relentless accumulation, van Gerwen's was built on speed and a scoring ceiling nobody else could reach — he throws fast, rarely reconsiders, and at his best simply outscores opponents into irrelevance.
The case for Luke Littler
The youngest world champion in the sport's history and the biggest audience driver it has ever had. Littler reached the 2024 World Championship final at 16, losing 7-4 to Luke Humphries after arriving as a qualifier ranked outside the top 150, and won the title a year later on 3 January 2025, beating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at 17 years and 347 days old. In between he won the 2024 Premier League at his first attempt, beating Humphries in the final, and the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts, among a major haul already larger than most professionals manage in a career. He throws quickly, appears immune to the occasion, and has averaged above 100 in televised finals since he was a schoolboy. His 2024 run drew the largest television audiences in the sport's history and a surge in board sales and junior participation across Britain, the Netherlands and Germany.