A record audience of more than 4.8 million people watched the World Darts Championship final, with a peak of 3.71 million – the highest non-football peak ever on Sky Sports; Sky Documentaries announces commission for all-access darts documentary series, available on Sky and NOW later this year
Last updated: 04/01/24 3:24 p.m.
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Highlights from the 2024 World Darts Championship final between world number one Luke Humphries and teenage sensation Luke Littler.
Highlights from the 2024 World Darts Championship final between world number one Luke Humphries and teenage sensation Luke Littler.
A record audience of more than 4.8 million people watched the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship final, with a peak audience of 3.71 million – the highest non-football peak ever on Sky Sports.
As darts fever swept the country, the record audience watched world number 1 Luke Humphries come back from 4-2 down to beat 16-year-old sensation Luke Littler 7-4 in Wednesday's final.
That figure represents a 143 percent increase on the 2023 final – now famous for Wayne Mardle's iconic comment “I can't talk” – as Michael Smith's nine darts propelled him to victory over Michael van Gerwen.
A record 4.8 million people watched Luke Humphries' World Darts Championship final victory over Luke Littler on Sky Sports and NOW.
The darts madness was also seen on social media, with 27.6 million video views across Sky Sports' social media channels on Wednesday evening. On Sky Sports Darts (X), there were 149.1 million impressions across the entire tournament and 9.9 million video views of content around the final alone (compared to 16.5 million overall of the 2023 tournament).
The impressive numbers continued on Instagram – 11.8 million video views – and a total reach of 10.2 million on Facebook. Millions of people also flocked to Sky Sports.com and its app, with 2.44 million people following the live blog, a 307% year-on-year increase on Smith v Van Gerwen (648,000).
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Check out the best moments from the 2024 World Darts Championship.
Jonathan Licht, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: “More and more people across the country have fallen in love with darts in recent weeks and as a long-term partner of the PDC, we are delighted that the sport will be the more entertaining is in the spotlight.
“More than 4.8 million people watched the remarkable final last night, making it the most watched non-football sporting event on Sky and NOW.
“Our congratulations to Lukes and all the players who contributed to such a memorable World Championship. We can’t wait for the Premier League event to begin in February.”
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A look back at Luke Littler's stunning debut as the teenager made history at the World Darts Championship.
Sky commissions new three-part darts documentary series
As darts continues to dominate the headlines, Sky Documentaries has announced the commission of a premium documentary series accessible to all areas, 'Darts'.
In a year like no other, this The three-part series will offer exclusive access to the world of professional darts and will be available on Sky and NOW later this year.
A new three-part documentary series will trace the journeys of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler to the World Darts Championship final.
The series will trace the action of the World Darts Championship from pre-tournament preparation to the final and beyond, following the promising prospects to the seeded players, the families who support them to achieve their dreams , as well as those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to create this global phenomenon.
Tom Barry, editor of Sky Documentaries, said: “This year's World Championship showed how darts can captivate the nation. Beyond the competition, for the first time, we're excited to bring audiences closer to the action and give them a glimpse of what it takes to reach the top.“.
“Darts” is produced by award-winning documentary production company Dorothy St Pictures for Sky, whose previous credits include “Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story” and “Pamela, A Love Story”. It is co-produced by Meadowlark, John Skipper's American company, in collaboration with the PDC.
Sky Sports is the home of darts with over 60 days of exclusive live coverage of the biggest tournaments each year, including the World Darts Championship as well as the Premier League, World Matchplay, Grand Slam of Darts, World Grand Prizes and the World Cup of Darts.