Teenage dart sensation Luke Littler has left the darts world questioning if anyone will ever get near him again after winning the World Matchplay Darts on Sunday.
‘The Nuke’ stormed to victory in Blackpool, winning the competition for the second year in a row and seeing off final opponent Gerwyn Price 18-9.
Littler being in total control at a darts competition is nothing new. He’s won every PDC major title in 2026 so far, and his World Matchplay performance has made it very difficult to argue he’s not head and shoulders above his competitors.
His mind-blowing performances have sparked debate over where he ranks in the sporting world, leading Sky Sports’ Love The Darts podcast pundits, former darts player Laura Turner and darts commentator Chris Murphy, to debate whether he is indeed the most dominant sportsperson in the world right now.
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Chris Murphy and Laura Turner debate whether Luke Littler has already surpassed Phil Taylor as the greatest ever darts player.
“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 then named two other sporting stars that come close to giving Littler a run for his money – tennis world No 1 Jannik Sinner and his golf equivalent, Scottie Scheffler – but concluded neither can touch him.
“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.”
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Highlights of the World Matchplay final between Luke Littler and Gerwyn Price.
Turner agreed, pointing out how rare it is to have two English people dominating a sport in both the men’s and women’s editions at the same time.
“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.”
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Highlights of the Women’s World Matchplay final between Beau Greaves and Fallon Sherrock in Blackpool.
Does Littler edge Taylor as darts’ greatest?
While Turner and Murphy have been wowed by Littler this month, they believe the teenager still has a while to go until he can call himself darts’ greatest ever.
Asked if he is the best darts player to ever do it, Murphy replied: “No, and this is where I think we need to zoom out a little bit. Potential to best the greatest? Possibly, but I don’t think it’s especially close yet to be honest.
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Following his World Matchplay final victory against Gerwyn Price, Luke Littler says he’d love to be the greatest darts player of all time and admits he is chasing the feat of winning every major darts title in a calendar year.
“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.”
Taylor, who retired in 2018, holds the record for the most darts world titles. Littler, meanwhile, has two, winning the PDC World Darts Championship in 2025 and 2026 after bursting on the scene in 2024.
Laura agreed that Littler has a way to go yet to edge Taylor, adding: “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.
Darts icon Phil Taylor was Luke Littler’s idol growing up
“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.
“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.”
Who will win this year’s BoyleSports World Grand Prix? World No 1 Luke Littler will be defending his title and you can watch all the action on Sky Sports. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
