As the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship approaches, anticipation is building for what promises to be another thrilling showcase of darting talent at the iconic Alexandra Palace in London. Kicking off this Sunday, 96 players will battle it out for the coveted Sid Waddell Trophy and a total prize fund of £2.5 million.
With the stakes as high as ever, reigning champion and world number one Luke Humphries is aiming to defend his title against a formidable field that includes teenage sensation Luke Littler and past winners Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross, Gary Anderson, and Raymond van Barneveld.
The folks at Flashscore thought it would be interesting to trawl through their data from the 2024 season to see if any trends could be identified that might indicate who will be in the running for this year’s crown.
Using statistics from all televised PDC matches, we created six different rankings: three-dart average, average checkout percentage, highest checkout average, and the number of 180s, 140s, and 100s per leg. The findings were then shared with some of the biggest names in the sport, with 2001 PDC World Championship semi-finalist and Sky Sports pundit commenting:
“Good stats covered. The matches played is a good point of reference.”
Wayne Mardle
One thing became apparent very quickly in our analysis, there are two players who were incredibly consistent over so many matches: Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler and ‘Cool Hand’ Luke Humphries.
Littler had a three-dart average of 101.00 over 111 matches, while Humphries had 99.84 over 115 matches – only Kai Gotthardt had higher (102.22) in the one game he lost 6-2 to Brendan Dolan at the International Darts Open!
Humphries had an average checkout percentage of 45, while Littler had 44. Their average highest checkouts do not split them much either, with Littler having 106.83 and Humphries 106.57. The Nuke did hit an incredible 498 180s in 1,202 legs – only bettered in percentage terms by, again, Gotthardt, who hit five in those eight legs against Dolan, while Cool Hand hit a very respectable 451 in 1,272 legs.
The next most consistent player was two-time PDC world champion Gary Anderson, who averaged 99.07 over 22 matches, had 46% on the checkouts, and had an average highest checkout of 114.23. The Flying Scotsman also hit 0.35 maximums per leg (8th highest), 1.13 140s per leg (3rd), and 2.41 100s per leg (3rd).
Former PDC player Kevin Painter, who famously finished as runner-up to Phil Taylor in the 2004 PDC World Championship final, now widely regarded as one of the greatest televised matches in the history of the sport, told us:
I don’t follow all PDC events religiously, but I’m going for Gary to win it.
Kevin Painter
Despite not firing at his brilliant best this year, three-time PDC world champion ‘Mighty’ Michael van Gerwen averaged 97.93 over 96 matches, had 45% on the checkouts, and had an average highest checkout of 106.74. However, the Dutchman was very low on the other three metrics, hitting 0.27 180s per leg (32nd), 0.89 140s per leg (46th), and 2.07 100s per leg (48th).
As for potential outsiders, Rob Cross and Stephen Bunting are definitely worth a mention. Cross had a solid three-dart average of 97.03 over 87 matches and a 47% success rate on the checkouts, while Bunting had an almost-identical average of 97.02 over 52 matches and 45% on the checkouts.
Damon Heta could be another one to watch if he can up his seasonal average of 93.43 given that he is arguably the sharpest shooter around with 52% successful checkouts over 45 matches – James Hurrell had 71% and Mickey Mansell had 53% but over only two and 11 games respectively.
We also shared the data with former PDC player and YouTuber Matthew Edgar, who commented saying, “Some greats stats there. The ones for James Wade are really interesting – so high on the 100s after so many games but a bit off on the 140s and 180s.”
This is because ‘The Machine’ lived up to his nickname in 2024, hitting an unbelievable 2.43 tons per leg – only Mickey Mansell had higher with 2.45 but over just 141 legs, compared to Wade’s 432. Despite this, he only managed to hit 0.98 140s per leg (21st) and 0.25 180s per leg (46th).
The insights gained from this data analysis have set the stage for a competitive showdown. With every match anticipated to be a display of skill and precision, the players will know that every dart could be pivotal in claiming the prestigious title.
Will Luke Littler go one better than last year and become the youngest ever world champion?
Will Luke Humphries make history as the first Englishman to win it back-to-back since Adrian Lewis in 2012?
Or will another contender emerge to claim victory against all odds? The countdown to the opening evening has truly begun, and the darts world is ready for its next chapter of electrifying action. For more data driven sports info go to https://www.flashscore.co.uk/
—–ENDS—–
Words: C.Ford
Image: PDC
Here is the dataset used in this analysis: https://bit.ly/flashscore-pdc-darts-2024-player-data.
