The 2026 final of the PDC World Darts Championships over the weekend saw a fall in viewership but still attracted a peak audience of 2.5 million in the UK, as youthful sensation Luke Littler secured back-to-back titles.
The final, in which Littler beat Dutchman Gian van Veen 7-1 at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace venue, drew an average viewership of 1.4 million on UK pay-TV heavyweight Sky Sports.
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The final on Saturday night was shown live on two Sky linear channels – Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Darts (renamed from Sky Sports F1 for the duration of the tournament).
It was the third consecutive World Darts Championship final for Littler, now 18, and all three have provided Sky with huge ratings over the festive period.
However, the audience for this year’s final was down considerably from those in 2025 and 2024.
Littler’s win over three-time champion Michael van Gerwen last year was watched by an average audience of 2.7 million viewers across Sky’s channels, and a peak of 3.1 million, which gave the broadcaster its biggest non-soccer audience in 12 months.
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By GlobalDataThe 2024 final, where then 16-year-old Littler was defeated by Luke Humphries, set a record with a peak audience of 3.7 million and an average of 3.1 million.
In early 2025, Sky secured a deal to remain the home of major PDC competitions until 2030.
The new contract includes 60 days of exclusive live coverage from iconic tournaments such as the World Darts Championship, the Premier League, World Matchplay, the Grand Slam of Darts, the World Grand Prix, and the World Cup of Darts.
Sky has been a UK PDC broadcast partner since the body was established in 1993.
In October, meanwhile, UK commercial broadcaster ITV also renewed its rights agreement with the Professional Darts Corporation until 2028.
Under the renewal, ITV will continue to air The Masters, UK Open, European Championship, and the Players Championship finals, as well as a minimum of seven events from the World Series of Darts, including the finals, across its ITV4 linear channel and ITVX streaming platform.
