After a number of sensational (and sometimes surprising) matches, it all comes down to tonight (3 January).

Luke Littler is set to face Michael van Gerwen in the final of the World Darts Championship.

It marks the teen’s second consecutive year in the final after he was defeated by Luke Humphries in his debut fight for the title.

But despite that loss, the Nuke has already raked in a load of cash since becoming a household name at the Championship last year.

And if he does win the world title tonight, he’ll make an absolutely incredible amount of money to top it off.

Littler secured his place in the final after beating Stephen Bunting by a 6-1 scoreline last night. And van Gerwen got there after beating Chris Dobey, also by 6-1 in sets, in his semi-final just before.

Both of them will face off to take the hefty £500,000 winner’s prize. But if they come in second place, they certainly won’t be leaving empty handed as the runner-up receives a cool £200,000.

Getting into the nitty gritty of how the darts world works, all prize money earned at the World Championship is added to a player’s ranking on the two-year Order of Merit system.

So, for example, Michael Smith came into this year’s tournament sitting as the number two player in the world. However, he ‘lost’ the prize money he was defending from bagging the title two years ago.

Smith would’ve previously automatically qualified for the majority of major tournaments, but thanks to a shock second round defeat to Kevin Doets, he’s now outside of the top 16 as 2025 kicks off.

Van Gerwen will face Littler (James Fearn/Getty Images)

PDC pro Matthew Edgar previously claimed players don’t actually get their full prize money when the World Championship comes to an end.

This is as the players receive remittance notices and deductions because they are technically self-employed contractors, and not directly employed by PDC.

Edgar added in a TikTok video: “Two per cent [of the prize money] is your PDC levy – that comes off everything before you even get it, and comes from playing on the Challenge Tour to being world champion.

“We all pay two per cent on our prize money before we even get it. Not only that, you’ve got to consider your membership fees. £500 is your membership, which goes before you even get it. That’s a once a year fee, and your DRA fee as well.

“I’ve got to deduct travel, my hotel and any other costs with that. Then, the money that is left is open to tax.”

The PDC World Championship final takes place at 7:30pm tonight.

If Luke Littler won the World Darts Championship final tonight (3 January) he planned to go into hiding for a bit.

Well he’s only gone and done it with a 7-3 victory over Michael van Gerwen.

Roll the clock back a year and the world of darts was being astonished by a prodigious 16-year-old who stormed to the final and ended up as the runner up after being defeated by Luke Humphries.

Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler was back in that final a year later, up against dart-throwing Dutchman Michael van Gerwen, who enjoyed several years in the game regarded as the world’s best player.

It seems like there’s little doubt that Littler is going to be one of the stars of darts for years to come, and said he had a plan in place if he won the final.

He told the Daily Telegraph that after he reached the final last year and the massive attention on him, he headed to a secret location in Wales for a couple of weeks to let the heat die down a bit.

Littler followed that up with a glittering 2024 in darts to prove that his WDC exploits weren’t a one-off, picking up a series of titles and gaining incredible fame.

Before the tournament, he told the Telegraph that if he got to the final again he’d once again take a bit of time off afterwards, though whether or not his previous bolt-hole in Wales would be used is a secret he kept.

He said: “If the same happens, I’ll hide away again, no one will find me.”

Guess what Luke? The same thing happened again and he found himself in the final once more, thanks to some skilled dart throwing from the 17-year-old.

Being the runner up last time around made Littler a proper celebrity, though he’s kept his feet on the ground as, last year when he was the runner-up, the first thing he spent his tournament money on was fish, chips and curry.

Guess who got to the final again? (James Fearn/Getty Images)

He told the Warrington Guardian that the key to dealing with his newfound fame was ‘about balancing it out’.

“There have been a lot of media commitments, but I had to make time to practice, and also to see my friends and family and play a bit of Xbox,” he said.

“Doing this is what I love – there’s been a bit of media and then an exhibition but after that, it’s chilling out.”

The Warrington lad has got himself a new home for chilling out in a less busy area, but said he still wanted to be close to his family and friends.

He said: “I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t more than half an hour away from my friends or take my Mum and Dad too far away from their parents.

“It’s good to still be local, even if it’s a little more out of the way.”

With the World Darts Championship final taking place tonight (3 January), it means it’s been roughly a year since Luke Littler broke through as a household name.

And to be honest, it’s almost hard to imagine the sport in the UK without him now – at least to those of us on the outside of it.

The Nuke’s consecutive year in the final comes after a dazzling debut season and a string of titles.

But having raked in an incredible amount of cash from the sport so far, Littler explained what he would be doing now if he hadn’t gotten into it in the first place.

To be fair, the lad’s only 17 so it’d really be early days for starting off in most careers anyway.

So it might not come as a total surprise that Littler revealed to The Telegraph whether there’s any Plan B in his mind: “A back-up? Not really.”

With his 18^th birthday coming up this month, he continued: “I was just focused on darts. If it didn’t go to plan, I’d probably just be in college with my mates. Luckily for myself I’m here.”

And honestly, fair enough to him. Can you imagine being asked what your backup career would be when you were still in sixth form?

Looking back on those two weeks of the last World Championship when he suddenly became the most recognisable teen in the UK, Littler described it as ‘crazy’.

Following that final, he escaped off to a secret location in Wales to have some time out.

As we know, it’s been pretty crazy since then too, with his own celebrity fans, invites to world stages, TV appearances, BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year win and his continued darts success.

At just 17 he’s had an incredible run so far (James Fearn/Getty Images)

But he seems to have been unchanged by the fame and kept his cool as he said: “No one has really told me how to be me – I’m just myself.”

That’s well reflected in his preparation for a tournament like this, as it sounds like the average day of most lads his age.

“A lot of sleep, practice, Xbox, chill out. An hour to an-hour-and-a-half [a day] on the board. Keep the arm loose,’ Littler explained. “[But] mostly just chilling… [see] some mates… go out with them sometimes, otherwise just chilling in my bedroom on my own, playing my game, on my phone.”

The 2024/25 PDC World Darts Championship final takes place tonight at Alexandra Palace.