Saturday, January 3, 2026
Column 705
Luke Little is better than Phil Taylor ever was!
There are certain statements in darts that sound like heresy no matter how carefully they’re made. This is one of them:
Luke Littler is better than Phil Taylor ever was!
Not greater. Not more dominant. Not more accomplished.
Better.
That distinction matters.
Phil Taylor’s achievements are untouchable. Sixteen world titles. Decades of fear. A sport bent around his will. He didn’t just win – he changed darts by making excellence unavoidable.
Anyone arguing against his greatness is either unserious or ignorant.
But greatness and ability are not the same thing. They never have been.
Taylor was the best player of his time, by a distance so vast it felt like a different sport. But his time was a sport still finding its ceiling.
Luke Littler arrived after the ceiling was already built – and started trying to punch through it.
This isn’t about disrespect. It’s about context.
Taylor dominated an era where professionalism was uneven, sports psychology was barely discussed, data analysis was minimal, and the standard – even among elite players – was wildly inconsistent.
He was ruthless in a landscape that allowed ruthlessness to flourish.
Littler, by contrast, has entered a darts world that is relentlessly professional. Every opponent he faces has grown up watching 110 averages on YouTube. Every weakness is studied. Every miss is punished. The margins are smaller, the pressure constant, the floor higher.
And yet – he is already operating beyond it.
What separates Littler is not just scoring power, though that alone would be historic. It is effortlessness. The absence of strain. The sense that his ceiling is not visible even to him yet.
Taylor imposed himself through intensity and intimidation. Littler does it by simply playing his game, as if the stakes were optional.
There is also the question no one likes to ask: what would Phil Taylor look like if he had grown up in this era?
The honest answer is: different – but not necessarily better.
Taylor’s greatness was forged in repetition, obsession, and an unrivaled hunger to win. Littler’s is being forged in fluency. He doesn’t need to grind the game into submission; the game already speaks his language.
Watch closely and you’ll see it. The way Littler resets instantly after a mistake. The way pressure seems to widen the target rather than narrow it. The way big moments don’t arrive as interruptions, but confirmations.
Taylor made darts professional. Littler is taking it into the stratosphere.
And yes, longevity matters. Titles matter. Survival across eras matters. Taylor owns all of that -for now.
But if we’re asking a purer question – who plays darts at a higher level than anyone before him ever could – then the answer is already standing at the oche.
Not because he will win more.
Not because he might last longer.
But because the game itself has moved on – and he has moved faster than all of it.
History will always belong to Phil Taylor.
But the future has already decided who plays darts better.
And it didn’t need sixteen world titles to make its point.
Stay thirsty, my friends,
Dartoid
