The world number 2 takes on world number 3 (on the live PDC Order of Merit) in the final of the PDC World Championships at the Alexandra Palace Friday evening UK time. With defending champion and world number one Luke Humphries out of the tournament, and despite the narrative of the number of seeds who fell early in the tournament, the cream still rose to the top and number two Littler takes on number three van Gerwen in the final.
Both players won their semi final 6-1, van Gerwen dropping the third set and Littler the fifth. It was almost like van Gerwen had become favourite for the final based on his performance in the semi final so Littler came out and proved he can match that effort, if not better it, to take favouritism back.
For Littler this is his second successive final of the PDC World Championships, only the seventh man to do so (the other six all being former World Champions – Priestley, Taylor, Lewis, Anderson, van Gerwen and Smith.) Last year he actually went up 4-2 before Humphries won five legs in succession to take the title. In 2023 van Gerwen was 3-2 up in the final against Michael Smith before Smith won five of the last six sets. So there last experiences of this match are fairly similar.
Littler has the most recent experience in the final, van Gerwen has made six finals, winning three of them. Littler averaged almost 106 whilst his opponent also averaged over 100 in his semi final victory to make the 2025 final. Van Gerwen averaged almost 99 against Dobey’s 94.77. Van Gerwen has averaged over 100 for the last three rounds prior to the semi final, and his lowest average is 84.85 (in round 2.) Littler has only dropped below 100 once this event, a 97.84 in round 3. Last year he averaged over 106 in the semi, his opponent 102, and he averaged 101 in the final but could not overcome Humphries. In 2023 van Gerwen averaged 99.58 as Smith averaged a touch over 100. When he last won the final he averaged over 102 and his opponent (Smith) averaged 95.29.
Van Gerwen was the youngest ever quarter finalist of a televised darts event, youngest ever semi-finalist of a televised darts event, and youngest ever player to do a televised nine-dart finish at the Masters of Darts, but all three records have been broken by Littler this year. As with Phil Taylor when MvG rose through the ranks, van Gerwen will not want to sit back and see more records broken. He was 24 when he won his first PDC world championship, the record for the youngest ever man to do so. He will want to keep at least this record, even if it is just for now.
The former PDC World Youth Champion in Littler, and PDC youth player of the year van Gerwen (in 2013) have played each other 12 times, all this year. This included 7 Premier League matches, the first two van Gerwen won, Littler then won three successive clashes beforeh MvG rounded up the final two. Their first ever match was in January last year, at the Bahrain leg of the World Series of Darts, in the final, which Littler won 8-5. Eight days later and the two met in the final of the Dutch Darts Masters, van Gerwen winning in front of his Dutch fans 8-6.
Van Gerwen defeated Littler 10-6 at the World Matchplay this year. Exactly two months later Littler turned things round once more, eliminating van Gerwen in the semi-finals of the World Series Finals. Littler won their last match, in late October, at European Tour 13. None of these matches can be seen as truly indicative as none go the length that this match will.
Van Gerwen has not won a ‘big’ PDC title since 2023 (he won the Premier League and World Series Finals that year), whilst Littler won both these titles in 2024 and also added the Grand Slam title to that collection.
When Michael van Gerwen made the Ally Pally stage for the first time Littler was not even one year old, indeed Littler was 11 when van Gerwen won his last PDC World Championship. Littler says it feels different this year and that he has learnt from what he did wrong in the final last year. Neither player has had it all go their own way in matches this year’s event, but both have been the most consistent across the tournament and are deservedly in the final.
This match could be a passing of the torch to the next generation which is strange to write given that van Gerwen is only 35. Van Gerwen, like the greats before him, wont be wanting to pass the torch this year and this will be a great way to make his point. Everything points to a close and long match, one with changes of momentum throughout.
The match kicks off at 730pm Friday night London time at the Alexandra Palace. Fox Sports channel 407 and Kayo Sports will have coverage from 630am Saturday morning AEDST. Sky Sports 1 in New Zealand is advertising coverage starting from 0630 New Zealand time, although the match start time would be from 0830am. PDCTV for subscribers is also available in both countries
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