Sports promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that teenage darts sensation Luke Littler’s semi final victory at the World Darts Championship attracted more viewers than the Ryder Cup.
Littler, a relatively unknown 16-year-old who started the tournament outside of the world’s top 150, has made headlines all over the world thanks to his fairytale run to make the final at the world champs.
According to Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom Sports and the Professional Darts Corporation, Littler’s latest win in the semi final against Rob Cross at Alexandra Palace became the most-watched darts match ever – even eclipsing golf’s most prestigious event.
Hearn tweeted that the semi final match earned an audience of 2.32 million, beating the previous record for a darts match between Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson in 2015 of 1.65m.
He added that the record viewership was also larger than cricket's The Ashes and that he hoped the final will break the 3m mark.
BREAKING..the record viewership for darts was 1.65m for Taylor v Anderson in 2015 Last night Littler v Cross smashed the record with 2.32m audience! Bigger than the Ashes, bigger than the Ryder Cup let’s break 3m tonight for the final @OfficialPDC 🔥 🎯January 3, 2024
Those figures are particularly impressive when compared to viewership from last year’s Ryder Cup, which was the most watched ever on Sky Sports in the UK.
The tournament attracted 3.7m on Sky Sports across three days, averaging 785,000 viewers, so Littler's semi final win didn't beat all three days combined, just single days, according to Hearn's figure of 2.32m. Sky Sports said viewership for the 2023 Ryder Cup was up 38 per cent from Whistling Straits in 2021 and 25 per cent from Le Golf National in 2018.
There's also the US figures to count, too, for the clash in Rome last September. NBC’s Ryder Cup coverage didn’t fare as well as Sky's, with viewership dropping significantly compared to 2018.
According to Sports Business Journal, last year’s Ryder Cup action only attracted 516,000 American viewers on Friday, 1.414m on Saturday and 1.315m on Sunday. Meanwhile, viewership in 2018 was 886,000, 2.116m and 2.467m respectively.
