PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf analyses the key data from PDC events in 2024, and finds a range of stars who have shown their ability to live with Luke Humphries and Luke Littler...
When analysing stats from across the PDC circuit in 2024, appropriately for his nom de guerre, Luke Littler's effect on darts in his debut year has been comparable to that of a nuclear weapon in warfare.
For a player so young to achieve such success, wealth and fame - capturing the Premier League and Grand Slam titles as well as the imagination of the darts world – so quickly is unheard of in darts.
Littler is the deserving favourite with the bookies to celebrate his 18th birthday as World Champion, having won more legs, hit more doubles, and registered more maxima than any other player in 2024.
But that isn't to say that statistically Littler has had his own way; those record-breaking numbers disguise the fact that, on a per-leg basis, other World Championship title contenders have the advantage.
For anyone anticipating the favourite to come good at the Alexandra Palace after seeing Littler demolish their favourite players this year, there is plenty of statistical reassurance available in support of his rivals.
In 2024, Littler demolished a two-year-old record for total 180s set by Michael Smith, landing 771 since the 2024 World Championship concluded, including 96 in finals (nearly twice as many as Luke Humphries) and 235 in the opening visit of a leg.
He finished the year on the highest number of maxima seen in more than two years over a 200-leg interval.
Yet even the player producing these extraordinary numbers was not the most likely to throw a 180 in a given leg; that honour goes to Gary Anderson, who threw maxima at a rate of 4.04 per ten legs, besting Littler's 3.99 output.
In floor events, Anderson was especially prolific, throwing five or more 180s in a majority of his matches and being the only player this year to have recorded ten in a single Players Championship match.
Anderson also led the PDC in 180s per leg in finals, where his impressive figure of 4.63 per ten legs was nearly matched by that of Ross Smith (4.61).
Littler, having played nearly 2000 legs in 2024, was destined to rack up the most in absolute terms, but with a title on the line or a deciding leg to be contested, there have been even more dependable players than the teenaged tyro.
In winning 1,151 legs, Littler also racked up 147 checkouts which could only be completed without missing a double. Six of those were 170 finishes; only Mike De Decker and Chris Dobey reeled in more 'Big Fish'.
Littler completed ton-plus checkouts of any description 13.1% of the time in 2024 but was bested again by Anderson on 13.7%.
Even this impressive figure compares unfavourably by the achievements of Damon Heta: the Australian number one completed only six fewer ton-plus checkouts than World Champion Humphries on 156 fewer attempts.
Especially impressive is Heta's tally of 19 checkouts of 121 completed in 2024 from 64 attempts, which gives a completion percentage of 30% - a higher figure than the Pro Tour average for completions of 91. No other player has completed even ten of the same one-double finish.
One of those 121 checkouts contributing to Heta's PDC-best 14% ton-plus checkout rate came in his 10-8 victory over Littler at the UK Open - proving that he is not only a great finisher in an abstract statistical sense, but that he can produce the goods at key moments such as during a direct confrontation with the celebrated prodigy.
Everyone knows Littler's ability to pour on the trebles and hit show-stopping finishes, but how does he compare to PDC veterans when it comes to the simplest task one can ask of a professional darts player: checking out with three darts at a double?
Any 17-year-old would be overjoyed to complete 78.1% of his smallest finishes, and he has done so 510 times to win 44% of all his victorious legs, but in the PDC this is only good enough to leave him ranked tenth among Tour Card Holders for doubling accuracy.
This time it is not Gary Anderson who leads the way (this has been a weak spot for him in 2024; he ranks 51st) but Ryan Joyce, one of three players to have completed more than 80% of checkouts like 32 and 40 within three darts.
Moreover, were you to give James Wade, Gian van Veen or even Martin Lukeman three darts at a double against Luke Littler, you would expect the teenager to blink before any of those three.
On the most common checkout of 40, Littler has the edge against every seeded player except one: Luke Humphries, who completed the finish three times successfully in his 11-7 defeat of Littler in the Players Championship Finals showpiece in November, the last time to win the match as he retained the title.
Set-up play is the one aspect of the game which often escapes analysis from bookmakers and casual fans, for while a successful set-up often does not score 180, it often requires skilful use of lesser-attempted trebles and accuracy on the bullseye.
From a score between 140 and 220, a PDC professional should be aiming to leave a double (or complete checkout, for those scores where possible) at least 10% of the time, so that that player can be reasonably assured of winning the leg if they return to the board.
Littler and Humphries have completed exactly as many successful set-ups in 2024 (180), but the latter is the more formidable in leaving an easy checkout handy for his next attempt: Humphries required 74 fewer attempts to reach 180 set-ups than Littler.
However, the ever-improving Cameron Menzies has a better set-up game than either of the World Championship finalists, with a 15.7% conversion rate, and remarkably, Anderson hits the 10% target on setups of 181-220, meaning that he will produce three trebles to leave a double more than once in every ten tries.
Just as players attempt to maximise their figures in all of the above statistics, so too are they attempting to minimize treble-less visits, which can sap their momentum and give encouragement to their opponents.
Littler, as the player with the most legs played, is bound to have more treble-less visits than his rivals, but he does not have the most: Michael Smith does, with 1686.
Only 20.8% of Littler's visits, beginning on a score of more than 100, result in no treble being hit, but once again Humphries is the more consistent player (20.3%).
One player, though, currently manages to hit a treble in more than 80% of his scoring visits - Ryan Searle, the player with the heaviest darts on the circuit!
From reading darts headlines it's clear that 2024 has been the Year of The Lukes, for at every opportunity around the globe they have pounded the trebles and carried off trophies.
But on a per-leg basis, no matter which individual statistic you choose, the favourite is not Littler.
If you care about averages, Gary Anderson will win the title. If big checkouts will make or break the tournament, then Damon Heta is the favourite. If clinical doubles are most important, then Humphries is the stronger Luke.
The case for Luke Littler becoming 2024/25 World Champion is that he is second-best in nearly every statistic to a different player, making him, in light of his astonishing debut year, the strongest all-round player Alexandra Palace has yet seen.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia