Sporting Life
Luke Littler in action in Bahrain (BIC)
Luke Littler in action in Bahrain (BIC)

How many televised nine-dart finishes have been made and who made them?

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Mon March 11, 2024 · 9M ago

A look at the total number of televised nine-dart finishes ever achieved in history, who made them, which tournaments and videos of the best ones.

There have been well over 450 tournament nine-darters across all PDC Tours since 1999 but in terms of perfect legs achieved in televised/streamed competition, there has only been 91 of them in history dating back to John Lowe's historic effort against Keith Deller in the 1984 MFI World Matchplay.

Of those 90 nine-darters, 70 have occurred in the PDC compared to 21 in other organisations such as the BDO/WDF and the Modus Super Series.

The most iconic tend to happen on the World Championship stage, with Paul Lim hitting the only one ever seen at the Lakeside in 1990 while Michael Smith completed the greatest leg ever seen against Michael van Gerwen in the Ally Pally final of 2023.

However, one of the most talked about nine-darters of all time happened in the surprising surroundings of Bahrain, where Luke Littler produced a moment of magic against Nathan Aspinall to become the youngest ever to achieve perfection at the age of just 16.

Televised nine-darters

  1. John Lowe v Keith Deller - MFI World Matchplay, 13 October 1984
  2. Paul Lim v Jack McKenna - BDO World Championship, 29 January 1990
  3. Shaun Greatbatch v Steve Coote - Dutch Open, 3 February 2002
  4. Phil Taylor v Chris Mason - World Matchplay 1 August 2002
  5. Phil Taylor (2) v Matt Chapman - UK Open, 5 June 2004
  6. Phil Taylor (3) v Roland Scholten - UK Open,12 June 2005
  7. Raymond van Barneveld v Peter Manley - Premier League Darts, 23 March 2006
  8. Michael van Gerwen v Raymond van Barneveld - Masters of Darts, 17 February 2007
  9. Phil Taylor (4) v Raymond van Barneveld - International Darts League, 8 May 2007
  10. Tony O'Shea v Adrian Lewis - International Darts League, 9 May 2007
  11. Phil Taylor (5) v Wes Newton - UK Open, 9 June 2007
  12. John Walton v Martin Phillips - World Masters, 17 November 2007
  13. Phil Taylor (6) v Jamie Harvey - UK Open, 6 June 2008
  14. James Wade v Gary Anderson - Grand Slam of Darts, 20 November 2008
  15. Raymond van Barneveld (2) v Jelle Klaasen - PDC World Championship, 2 January 2009
  16. Mervyn King v James Wade - South African Masters, 27 September 2009
  17. Darryl Fitton v Ross Montgomery - Zuiderduin Masters, 13 December 2009
  18. Raymond van Barneveld (3) v Brendan Dolan - PDC World Championship, 28 December 2009
  19. Raymond van Barneveld (4) v Terry Jenkins - Premier League Darts, 29 April 2010
  20. Phil Taylor (7) v James Wade - Premier League Darts, 24 May 2010
  21. Phil Taylor (8) v James Wade - Premier League Darts, 24 May 2010
  22. Mervyn King (2) v Gary Anderson - UK Open, 5 June 2010
  23. Raymond van Barneveld (5) v Denis Ovens - World Matchplay, 17 July 2010
  24. Adrian Lewis v Gary Anderson - PDC World Championship, 3 January 2011
  25. John Part v Mark Webster - World Matchplay, 16 July 2011
  26. Adrian Lewis (2) v Raymond van Barneveld - European Championship, 31 July 2011
  27. Brendan Dolan v James Wade - World Grand Prix, 8 October 2011
  28. Phil Taylor (9) v Kevin Painter - Premier League Darts, 16 February 2012
  29. Simon Whitlock v Andy Hamilton - Premier League Darts, 17 May 2012
  30. Gary Anderson v Davey Dodds - UK Open, 8 June 2012
  31. Michael van Gerwen (2) v Steve Beaton - World Matchplay, 25 July 2012
  32. Wes Newton v Justin Pipe - World Matchplay, 26 July 2012
  33. Dean Winstanley v Vincent van der Voort - PDC World Championship, 23 December 2012
  34. Michael van Gerwen (3) v James Wade - PDC World Championship, 30 December 2012
  35. Terry Jenkins v Per Laursen - PDC World Championship, 14 December 2013
  36. Kyle Anderson v Ian White - PDC World Championship, 14 December 2013
  37. Phil Taylor (10) v Michael Smith - World Matchplay, 23 July 2014
  38. James Wade (2) v Robert Thornton - World Grand Prix, 8 October 2014
  39. Robert Thornton v James Wade - World Grand Prix, 8 October 2014
  40. Michael van Gerwen (4) v Raymond van Barneveld - European Championship, 26 October 2014
  41. Kim Huybrechts v Michael van Gerwen - Grand Slam of Darts, 14 November 2014
  42. Adrian Lewis (3) v Raymond van Barneveld - PDC World Championship, 30 December 2014
  43. Darryl Fitton (2) v Martin Adams - Dutch Open,1 February 2015
  44. Phil Taylor (11) v Peter Wright - Sydney Darts Masters, 22 August 2015
  45. Dave Chisnall v Peter Wright - Grand Slam of Darts, 8 November 2015
  46. Gary Anderson (2) v Jelle Klaasen - PDC World Championship, 2 January 2016
  47. Michael van Gerwen (5 v Rob Cross - UK Open, 5 March 2016
  48. Adrian Lewis (4) v James Wade - Premier League Darts, 14 April 2016
  49. Adrian Lewis (5) v Raymond van Barneveld - Premier League Darts, 13 April 2017
  50. Kyle Anderson (2) v Michael van Gerwen - European Championship, 29 October 2017
  51. Gary Anderson (3) v Joe Cullen - World Matchplay, 26 July 2018
  52. Dimitri Van den Bergh v Stephen Bunting - Grand Slam of Darts, 14 November 2018
  53. Michael van Gerwen (6) v Adrian Lewis - Players Championship Finals, 23 November 2019
  54. Michael Smith v Daryl Gurney - Premier League Darts, 27 February 2020
  55. Jonny Clayton v Chris Dobey - UK Open, 7 March 2020
  56. Michael van Gerwen (7) v Daryl Gurney - UK Open, 8 March 2020
  57. Peter Wright v Daryl Gurney - Premier League Darts, 29 August 2020
  58. José de Sousa v Jeffrey de Zwaan - European Championship, 29 October 2020
  59. James Wade (3) v Stephen Bunting - PDC World Championship, 29 December 2020
  60. James Richardson v Josh Richardson - MODUS Super Series, 29 March 2021
  61. Jonny Clayton (2) v José de Sousa - Premier League Darts, 7 April 2021
  62. José de Sousa (2) v Nathan Aspinall - Premier League Darts, 8 April 2021
  63. Richie Burnett v Scott Williams - MODUS Super Series, 28 August 2021
  64. Martin Adams v Jamie Caven - MODUS Super Series, 1 September 2021
  65. Colin Osborne v John O'Shea - MODUS Super Series, 9 September 2021
  66. Martin Adams (2) v Scott Williams - MODUS Super Series, 22 November 2021
  67. William Borland v Bradley Brooks - PDC World Championship, 17 December 2021
  68. Darius Labanauskas v Mike De Decker - PDC World Championship, 18 December 2021
  69. Gerwyn Price v Michael Smith - PDC World Championship, 1 January 2022
  70. Gerwyn Price (2) v Michael van Gerwen - Premier League Darts, 7 February 2022
  71. Gerwyn Price (3) v James Wade - Premier League Darts, 7 February 2022
  72. James Wade (4) v Boris Krčmar - UK Open, 25 March 2022
  73. Michael Smith (2) v Mensur Suljović - UK Open, 25 March 2022
  74. Conor Heneghan v Thibault Tricole - MODUS Super Series, , 2 July 2022
  75. Graham Usher v Dan Read - MODUS Super Series, 22 July 2022
  76. Gerwyn Price (4) v Danny Noppert - World Matchplay, 23 July 2022
  77. Conor Heneghan (2) v Adam Smith-Neale - MODUS Super Series, 16 September 2022
  78. Josh Rock v Michael van Gerwen - Grand Slam of Darts, 17 November 2022
  79. Michael van Gerwen (8) v Rob Cross - Players Championship Finals, 27 November 2022
  80. Michael Smith (3) v Michael van Gerwen - PDC World Championship, 3 January 2023
  81. Conor Heneghan (3) v Alan Norris - MODUS Super Series, 9 March 2023
  82. Steve West v Luke Littler - MODUS Super Series, 4 August 2023
  83. Darryl Pilgrim v Scott Taylor - MODUS Super Series, 15 August 2023
  84. Fallon Sherrock v Adam Lipscombe - MODUS Super Series, 25 August 2023
  85. Michael van Gerwen (9) v Luke Humphries - World Series of Darts Finals, 17 September 2023
  86. Sebastian Białecki v Anton Östlund - MODUS Super Series, 2 November 2023
  87. Ryan Searle v Nathan Rafferty - Grand Slam of Darts, 13 November 2023
  88. Leonard Gates v Martin Thomas - MODUS Super Series, 25 November 2023
  89. Michael van Gerwen (10) v Luke Humphries - Players Championship Finals, 26 November 2023
  90. Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall - Bahrain Darts Masters, 19 January 2024
  91. Luke Littler v Rob Cross - Belgian Darts Open, 19 January 2024

Players with multiple televised nine darters

  • Phil Taylor - 11
  • Michael van Gerwen - 10
  • Raymond van Barneveld - 5
  • Adrian Lewis - 5
  • James Wade - 4
  • Gerwyn Price - 4
  • Gary Anderson- 3
  • Michael Smith - 3
  • Conor Heneghan - 3
  • Luke Littler - 2
  • Mervyn King - 2
  • Darryl Fitton - 2
  • Kyle Anderson - 2
  • Jonny Clayton - 2
  • José de Sousa - 2
  • Martin Adams - 2

Organisations with most nine-darters

  • PDC - 70
  • PDC/BDO/WDF - 3
  • WDF/BDO - 6
  • Modus Super Series - 12

Tournaments with most nine-darters

  • PDC World Darts Championship - 14 (Raymond van Barneveld (2), Adrian Lewis (2), Dean Winstanley, Michael van Gerwen, Terry Jenkins, Kyle Anderson, Gary Anderson, James Wade, William Borland, Darius Labanauskas, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith)
  • PDC Premier League Darts - 14 (Phil Taylor (3), Raymond van Barneveld (2), Adrian Lewis (2), Gerwyn Price (2), Simon Whitlock, Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Jonny Clayton, José de Sousa)
  • MODUS Super Series - 12 (Conor Heneghan (3), Martin Adams (2), Richie Burnett, Colin Osborne, Graham Usher, Steve West, Darryl Pilgrim, Fallon Sherrock, Sebastian Białecki, Leonard Gates)
  • PDC UK Open - 11 (Phil Taylor (4), Michael van Gerwen (2), Mervyn King, Gary Anderson, Jonny Clayton, James Wade, Michael Smith)
  • PDC World Matchplay - 8 (Phil Taylor (2), Raymond van Barneveld, John Part, Michael van Gerwen, Wes Newton, Gary Anderson, Gerwyn Price)
  • PDC Grand Slam of Darts - 6 (James Wade, Kim Huybrechts, Dave Chisnall, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Josh Rock, Ryan Searle)
  • PDC European Championship - 4 (Adrian Lewis, Michael van Gerwen, Kyle Anderson, José de Sousa)
  • PDC Players Championship Finals - 4 (Michael van Gerwen (3), Alan Norris)
  • PDC World Grand Prix - 3 (Brendan Dolan, James Wade, Robert Thornton)
  • PDC/BDO International Darts League - 2 (Phil Taylor, Tony O'Shea)
  • BDO Dutch Open - 2 (Shaun Greatbatch, Darryl Fitton)
  • BDO MFI World Matchplay - 1 (John Lowe)
  • BDO World Darts Championship - 1 (Paul Lim)
  • PDC/BDO - Masters of Darts (Michael van Gerwen)
  • BDO World Masters - 1 (John Walton)
  • PDC - South African Masters - 1 (Mervyn King)
  • BDO Zuiderduin Masters - 1 (Darryl Fitton)
  • PDC Sydney Darts Masters - 1 (Phil Taylor)
  • PDC World Series of Darts Finals - 1 (Michael van Gerwen)
  • PDC Bahrain Darts Masters - 1 (Luke Littler)

Nine-darter occurrence year by year:

  • 1984: 1
  • 1990: 1
  • 2002: 2
  • 2004: 1
  • 2005: 1
  • 2006: 1
  • 2007: 5
  • 2008: 2
  • 2009: 4
  • 2010: 5
  • 2011: 4
  • 2012: 7
  • 2013: 2
  • 2014: 6
  • 2015: 3
  • 2016: 3
  • 2017: 2
  • 2018: 2
  • 2019: 1
  • 2020: 6
  • 2021: 9
  • 2022: 11
  • 2023: 10
  • 2024: 1

TOTAL (so far): 90

Watch: World Championship nine-darters

Click on the image below to watch all of the World Championship nine-darters

Related links