PDC chief executive Matthew Porter insists he is not worried about the idea of Luke Littler's dominance having negative long-term effects on darts' popularity, saying an individual's time at the top "just doesn't happen forever."
The 18-year-old reigning world champion has proved a cut above his rivals since his breakthrough in 2023 and became the new world No. 1 in November on his way to defeating Luke Humphries in the final of the Grand Slam of Darts. He is the red-hot favourite to defend his title at Alexandra Palace at the World Darts Championship which begins on Thursday.
Littler is tipped by many to eclipse the 16 world championships won by the legendary Phil Taylor by the time he walks away from the sport but PDC chief Porter is not concerned by the prospect of unceasing Littler victories.
"We've had it before. We've had it before with Phil Taylor. We've had it before with Michael van Gerwen," Porter told ESPN.
"There was a period which he is often overlooked now, when Van Gerwen won everything for three years. Just because I think he probably hasn't got as many world titles as he'd like to have had -- he's lost in four finals but he's still won three."
"But I saw a stat the other day: Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen, and this is a social media stat, so if it's wrong don't worry. But it's quite a good number to think about. Between them, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen have won 53% of all PDC televised TV finals. Now that might not be exactly right, but it's not going to be far off.
"So we've had dominant players before. Luke Humphries dominated a couple of years ago... it's how long it happens for. But I think human nature or human patterns will say that it can't, it just doesn't happen forever.
"Luke's leading the way at the moment. He's setting the standard. He's super confident. Obviously talented as much as he needs to be, as much talent as he needs. So we'll see. It's up to the others to catch him."
Porter said that while darts connoisseurs may become tired of Littler's successes, his star quality will keep attracting fans to the sport.
"I think you've got two different types of audience, haven't you? You've got your real committed fan who follow it week in, week out and they probably want to see more competition. But then people who just dip into it and dip out of it, they love the superstars, they love the Tiger Woodses, they love the Roger Federers, whatever, so they all love the Luke Littlers," Porter said.
"So we've always got two audiences to play with. We've got our core audience, our committed audience, our people who follow darts 12 months a year. And then we've got people who just dip in at Christmas and maybe follow it once or twice else through the year. So they'll probably have different priorities and that's fine."
Littler begins his world championship title defence against Lithuanian world No. 95 Darius Labanauskas later on Thursday.
- Here's what you've missed in darts since Luke Littler's win last year
- The Luke Littler effect: How 'The Nuke' changed darts like Tiger Woods changed golf
- Luke Littler darts titles, prize money, career history, more