From working class pubs to sold-out stadiums: how darts has become a major international sport
- Written by The Conversation
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.
Becoming big business
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 continues to grow.
The Netherlands remains a strong and expanding heartland, while in Germany, viewership for the World Championship final has increased eightfold since 2008.
In Australia, precise viewing figures are not widely available, but the Foxtel Group’s landmark four-year deal with the PDC in 2023 suggests rising demand.
Surging audiences are translating into significantly larger broadcast deals.
In 2025, Sky Sports reportedly outbid Netflix to secure a new £125 million (A$260.3 million) deal for exclusive UK coverage of the PDC for 2026–30. That was double the size of the previous deal.
In contrast, many other sports face stagnation or even sharp declines in media rights value.
For instance, the UK Super League rugby’s rights on Sky Sports fell from £40 million (A$83.3 million) per season in 2021 to £21.5 million (A$44.5 million) in 2024.
Similarly, in soccer, the French Ligue 1’s TV deal with DAZN collapsed due to underwhelming subscriber numbers. Meanwhile, ESPN walked away from its long-standing agreement with Major League Baseball after unsuccessfully trying to cut its US$550 million (A$848 million) annual payment down to $200 million (A$309 million).
Prize money in darts has also exploded.
Next year, the winner of the two-week long World Championship will bank £1 million (A$2.08 million) – doubling this year’s purse.
The prize money was £60,000 (A$124,960) in 2005, representing a 1,567% increase over 20 years.
Tickets are also hot property. Premier League and World Championship sessions often sell out within minutes worldwide: the UK, Bahrain, New York and even Wollongong have become key stops in darts’ international calendar.
The recipe for success
Like Formula 1 and the UFC, darts benefits from being privately operated.
Without the typical bureaucracy and conflicting interests seen in many traditional sport governing bodies, the PDC can respond more quickly to audience preferences and market opportunities.
This streamlined, commercially driven approach has been key to darts’ growth.
The sport has been expertly tailored to modern audiences.
One of darts’ best-known selling points is the live event experience. The entertainment-first approach is known for loud music, the showmanship of player walk-ons, fancy dress from the crowd and yes, often plenty of alcohol.
The lines are blurred between sport and party and fans love it.
Culturally, darts is seen by many as fun, relatable, and rooted in working-class culture. After all, its heritage is in the pub.
Darts is ideally suited to modern sport media consumption habits: PLD matches last only 20–30 minutes and the up-close TV product works perfectly for social media highlight clips.
It is also one of the few sports where women compete directly against men.
This adds another layer of interest for fans and has helped elevate stars such as Fallon Sherrock, who made headlines in 2019 by becoming the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championship, eventually reaching the final 32.
A prodigy emerges
The so-called “Littler Effect” has given darts’ profile a significant boost.
The emergence of talented teenager Luke Littler has broken new ground for the sport and drawn global interest.
The English prodigy, who has quickly risen to fame, is by far the sport’s biggest star, but it would be unfair to say darts is a one-man band.
Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen enjoy significant profiles while Phil Taylor is regarded as the sport’s greatest player. Australia’s Simon “The Wizard” Whitlock also forged a successful career.
There is also colourful two-time world champion Peter Wright.
Where to from here?
The success of darts reveals much about modern sports audiences and their preferences.
Darts does not rely on traditional ideas of athletic excellence, nor does it fit the Olympic ideal.
Yet, darts is thriving while many traditional sports are stagnating.
Darts’ success stems from remaining authentic to its working-class roots while evolving into an engaging commercial product suited for television, short-form content and digital media.
For darts to fully achieve its global potential, the next step has to be continued international growth. Although it has grown steadily in markets like Australia and throughout Asia, the UK remains darts’ dominant base.
As the global sports marketplace becomes more fragmented and competitive, darts is well positioned to continue growing.
