Luke Humphries arrives at Alexandra Palace on Saturday to begin his World Championship brimming with confidence, having won two major titles this year and reached a string of finals. “I feel like I’m playing much better than I was in 2023 when I actually won it,” he says. And he’s got the receipts to prove it.
“My tournament average was better this year than when I won the Grand Prix in 2023. My tournament average was better in the Grand Slam this year than when I won it. My tournament average is better in the European Championships than when I’ve ever played in it. So my standard has got better. And I feel like sometimes when the pressure is on me a little bit, I seem to play better.”
The problem, of course, is that the man – boy, technically – who Humphries beat in the 2023 final is playing much better now too. Luke Littler has swept up almost every other notable trophy on offer this year and Humphries has had to settle for scraps, albeit that may be a slightly disrespectful description of the Masters and the Premier League.
Littler has taken Humphries’ No 1 ranking too, and so it is no surprise that a showdown is being talked up as the likely final on 3 January. They are friendly, if not close friends, and yet Humphries has previously called their rivalry on the board a “war”.
Speaking ahead of the tournament, he doubles down on that take. “I don’t know another word you can use to describe it. The two best darts players are going at it, trying to be world No 1, trying to be world champion. It’s war.”
Humphries sees this World Championship as pivotal to the future balance of power at the top of the game. “It’s pretty obvious what I mean. We’re both basically going to put it all on the line and try and really decide who can stay at No 1, because if Luke wins the worlds then he stays there for many, many years.”
It is not entirely fair to depict the first few rounds of the World Championship as a warm-up before the inevitable final between two Lukes. Michael van Gerwen reached last year’s final and no one knows how to navigate the many rounds like the Dutchman, a three-time champion. Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting have had their moments this season, while rising talents such as Josh Rock and Gian van Veen – who beat Humphries in a dramatic finish to win the European Championship in October– can make their mark. But if Littler is in full flow, it is hard to imagine anyone stopping him other than Humphries.
The virtual duopoly at the top of the sport – they have won almost everything over the past two years – does not entertain everyone. “I do see players moaning,” says Humphries. “But we’re just doing our thing. I’m doing my thing and winning. He’s doing his thing and winning. If you’re not beating him, you’ve got to beat me, and it’s a hard task. I’ve got to beat him to win. He’s got to beat me. It’s a hard game.”
Humphries has been in the thick of dart’s cultural and commercial explosion, and he will reap the rewards over the next few weeks if he can reach the latter stages of the tournament. The total prize pot for this year’s tournament at Alexandra Palace is a record £5m, and the winner will scoop £1m, the biggest payout in sport’s history.
It has been a wild couple of years, fuelled by Littler’s emergence as a 16-year-old and his running battle with Humphries, turning them into household names. This next chapter will draw millions more eyeballs to the Palace on the hill.
“It’s been more than I ever expected, it’s crazy,” Humphries says. “The attention that people bring to you, like when you’re walking around, you just get recognised everywhere. It’s quite extreme sometimes when you’re out and about and everyone recognises you. I didn’t expect that part of it to happen after that final with Luke. But I just see the sport is so massive now, everybody talks about it. This World Championship will just be the only thing that’s on everybody’s mind.”
