Few sports have witnessed a transformation as dramatic as darts in recent years.

From its origins as a pub game stereotypically played with cigarette and beer in hand, darts is now serious business.

With surging television ratings and huge demand for live events, the growth of darts continues to leave many sports looking on in envy.

There has been a combination of factors at play – not least one exceptionally prodigious teenager. Before discussing those factors, it’s worth taking a closer look at the numbers.

Darts sits alongside a select few sports to have achieved significant commercial growth over the past decade.

While not at the scale of sports such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Formula 1, the rise of darts has been prolific.

In the United Kingdom, a record-breaking peak of 3.7 million viewers watched the 2024 Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championship final. It was Sky Sports’ highest-ever non-soccer broadcast.

In addition to the PDC World Championship – the sport’s premier knockout event – viewership records were also broken across the 2024 Premier League Darts season, a league-format competition featuring weekly fixtures between top-ranked players.

On the UK’s Sky Sports, the 15 most-watched nights in the competition’s history all occurred that year.

The PDC World Championship and Premier League Darts sit alongside the World Matchplay as the “Triple Crown” of most important darts events.

Outside the UK, darts viewership also........

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