Luke Humphries suffered a third consecutive loss in PDC major finals last night after a 16-11 loss to Luke Littler in the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts final but stated afterwards that he ‘will win the worlds’…
Luke Humphries came into the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts needing to make the final (ideally winning it) and hoping Luke Littler wouldn’t make the finals.
He was defending his 2023 Grand Slam win prize money and has had Luke Littler consistently closing the gap in the PDC Order of Merit rankings this year.
Despite making the final, unfortunately for him Luke Littler would not only make the final but go on to win it.
Luke Littler fulfils his darting destiny and becomes the new world number one 👏
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 16, 2025
Six televised ranking titles at just 18 years old! 🤯
Darting phenom! ☢️ pic.twitter.com/0KlYAeoXbY
Luke Littler has now replaced Luke Humphries as the world number one in the rankings and will go into the Players Championship Finals with a ‘free hit’, not having to defend prize money.
See related – PDC Order of Merit updates following 2025 Grand Slam of Darts
Luke Humphries on the other hand will once again be defending winning prize money from 2023!
Despite finally being overtaken as the world number one, Humphries doesn’t seem fazed and has already sent a warning to rival players ahead of the 2026 World Championship… 👀
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Luke Humphries Claims he ‘Will Win Worlds’
Luke Humphries, despite losing the final to Luke Littler and falling to 2nd place in the rankings, had a great tournament at the Grand Slam.
He topped Group A which was a tough group containing Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall.
He would then go on to beat Jurjen van der Velde, Michael Smith and Gerwyn Price with some impressive results before meeting Littler in the final.
Second round vs Jurjen van der Velde: 10-3 (108.55 average)
Quarter-finals vs Michael Smith: 16-8 (104.98 average)
Semi-finals vs Gerwyn Price: 16-13 (106.25 average)
A 16-11 loss to Littler in the final isn’t the result Cool Hand would have wanted but despite the loss, he seemed confident for the remainder of the year.
In his post game interview with Sky Sports, Humphries made a bold statement saying:
“I’m really proud, that’s three finals on the trot that I’ve lost so I’m ready for the worlds.
“I’m going to win the worlds.
“I’m disappointed to lose three finals but I’m playing good and the tiredness just crept in there at the end.
It could have been 10-10 and that tiredness crept in but one game a day suits me.
“We’re going to go to war, World Championships, me and him in the final… We’re going to see who’s the one there.”
As he mentioned, it has been three straight major finals for Luke Humphries who is showing great consistency despite the pressure of defending so much prize money in the latter stages of 2025.
After another all Luke final though, the stats are beginning to look very convincing for who the current best players are in darts…
Luke vs Luke: PDC Major Finals DOMINANCE
This friendly rivalry started at the 2024 World Darts Championship where Luke Littler would burst onto the scene and make it to the final as a then 16 year old.
Luke Humphries followed up on a trio of major titles in 2023 to become the world champion and world number one
Out of 22 PDC major tournaments (ranked and unranked) in 2024 and 2025, at least one of the pair have made it to the final in 18 of these tournaments and between them they have won 14 of these titles.
2025 is truly being dominated by the pair though…
At least one of them has appeared in every ranked major final and the only major tournament where one of them hasn’t appeared in the final was the 2025 World Cup of Darts.
It’s fair to say that Luke Littler has been the more dominant of the pair though.
He has won 5/7 ranking major titles in 2025 to Humphries’ single major ranking title at the Winmau World Masters.
Luke Humphries made that confident statement to claim he’ll win the 2026 World Championship but at present, the stats would favour Luke Littler.
2025 PDC major ranking title winners (to date)
- 2025 World Championship (Luke Littler)
- 2025 Winmau World Masters (Luke Humphries)
- 2025 UK Open (Luke Littler)
- 2025 World Matchplay (Luke Littler)
- 2025 World Grand Prix (Luke Littler)
- 2025 European Championship (Gian van Veen)
- 2025 Grand Slam of Darts (Luke Littler)
The pair have another chance to make a major final as soon as this week at the 2025 Players Championship Finals, a tournament where both were in the final just last year!
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