Luke Humphries

Humphries won five PDC Development Tour titles in 2017, finishing top of the Development Tour Order of Merit. As a result of this, he qualified for the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship where he lost to Jeff Smith, and received a PDC Tour Card for the 2018 and 2019 season.

Humphries topped the Development Tour Order of Merit in 2019, a year which culminated in a fantastic run at the 2019 World Championship for Humphries. He beat Adam Hunt, Stephen Bunting, Dimitri Van den Bergh, and defending champion Rob Cross, before eventually losing 1–5 to Michael Smith in the quarter-finals.

Following Gary Anderson's withdrawal from the 2019 Premier League, Humphries was selected as one of nine 'contenders' to replace him. He played a one-off match against Gerwyn Price on night four in Exeter.

At the age of 24 Humphries won the 2019 PDC World Youth Championship, where he beat Adam Gawlas 6–0.

In the 2020 World Championship, Humphries once again reached the quarter-finals before losing 3–5 to eventual champion Peter Wright. Humphries was once again selected for the Premier League, this time under the tag of 'challenger'. He faced Gary Anderson in Exeter and became the first challenger to win their game.

In the 2021 World Championship, Humphries suffered a shock 2–3 first-round defeat to veteran Paul Lim. Luke Humphries made his first major televised final at the 2021 UK Open in March 2021. His run to the final saw him claim wins over Dave Chisnall in the quarter-final and then-reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final. He was defeated 5–11 by James Wade in the final.

In the 2022 World Championship, Humphries reached his third quarter-final in four years before losing 2–5 to Gary Anderson. Humphries reached his first PDC European Tour final at the 2022 German Darts Grand Prix by beating Jeffrey de Zwaan, Michael Smith, Wesley Plaisier and Michael van Gerwen. He beat Martin Lukeman in the final, hitting double 4 to win 8–2. He then won back-to-back titles at the 2022 Czech Darts Open and the 2022 European Darts Grand Prix before adding an 8–7 win against Rowby-John Rodriguez in the final of the 2022 European Darts Matchplay, ending the year with four European Tour titles.

In the 2023 World Championship, Humphries reached the fourth round before losing 1–4 to Stephen Bunting. In October 2023, Humphries won his first major title at the 2023 World Grand Prix, defeating tournament favourite Gerwyn Price, 5–2 in the final. The £120,000 prize money earned through this victory, saw him move into a career-high fourth in the Order of Merit. He won his second major televised title, 42 days later, at the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts, defeating Rob Cross 16–8 in the final, averaging an impressive 104.69. Humphries won his third televised title at the 2023 Players Championship Finals. He came back from 9–5 down to defeat Michael van Gerwen 11–9 in a match where van Gerwen hit a nine-dart finish but missed eight darts at doubles in the 19th leg to set up a deciding leg, before Humphries won the match on double 1.

Humphries entered the 2024 World Championship with many considering him the favourite to win the tournament. Humphries won his opening match against Lee Evans 3–0. In the third round, Humphries recovered from 3–1 down to beat Ricardo Pietreczko 4–3. He then got through a sudden death leg against Joe Cullen to advance to the quarter-finals. Humphries then achieved wins against Dave Chisnall, 5–1, and Scott Williams, 6–0, to reach the final. On 3 January 2024, Humphries won the World Championship, winning five sets in a row to defeat fellow Cheshire talent Luke Littler 7–4 in the final. For that, he was invited to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street.

In March, Humphries reached the final of the UK Open for the second time. He missed two match darts to win the title in an 11–10 loss to Dimitri Van den Bergh. He won his first European Tour title of the season at the 2024 German Darts Grand Prix, winning 8–1 against Michael van Gerwen in the final with an average of 112.66.

Humphries represented England for the first time in the World Cup of Darts in June, partnering Michael Smith. The pair became the first English team to win the tournament since 2016, defeating Austria 10–6 in the final.

In July he won the 2024 World Matchplay, beating Michael van Gerwen 18–15 in the final. This made him only the second player after Phil Taylor to win the World Championship and the World Matchplay in the same year.

In October, Humphries started his defence of the World Grand Prix after his victory over Gerwyn Price in the 2023 final. After an impressive comeback against Stephen Bunting in the first round, he was able to reach the final for a second consecutive year. However, he lost 6–4 to outsider Mike De Decker. Humphries added two more Pro Tour titles during the month, with an 8–7 win over Stephen Bunting in the final at Players Championship 26 and an 8–1 win over Kim Huybrechts in the final of the 2024 Czech Darts Open.

In November, following elimination in the group stage of the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts, Humphries successfully defended a title for the first time at the 2024 Players Championship Finals, defeating Luke Littler 11–7 in the final.

Humphries started his 2024 Premier League Darts campaign at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales. He went on to lose his debut match to Luke Littler 6–2 in legs. After the match, Humphries wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he felt "gutted" with the constant whistling and heckling at him during the match. Humphries started night two at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin by winning his quarter-final match against Rob Cross 6–5. However, he then suffered another loss to Littler, losing 6–5 in the semi-finals. On night three at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Humphries beat Nathan Aspinall 6–3 with a 105.53 average in the quarter-finals, and defeated Gerwyn Price 6–3 in his semi-final match. Humphries lost to Michael van Gerwen 6–5 in the night's final. On night four at the Newcastle Arena, Humphries lost 6–5 in the quarter-finals to Rob Cross. Just before the 2024 UK Open weekend, Humphries played at Premier League event five at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter. In the quarter-finals he defeated Michael van Gerwen 6–3, before losing 5–6 to Nathan Aspinall in the semi-finals.

Luke Humphries won his first Premier League night at Brighton Centre on night six. Humphries achieved a three-dart average of over 100 in all three of his wins on the night, with a 6–2 victory over Gerwyn Price, followed by a 6–3 win over Rob Cross, where Humphries averaged 113.71, and a 6–3 defeat of Michael Smith in the final. Humphries won a second consecutive night on night seven, at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. Humphries recorded his fifth and sixth consecutive ton+ (100+) Premier League averages in wins over Michael Smith, 6–4, and Peter Wright, 6–1, before beating Nathan Aspinall 6–3 in the final. Humphries equalled the record for most consecutive nightly wins in the Premier League, making it three in a row on night eight at the 3Arena in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Humphries continued to record averages over 100, doing it in all 3 of his wins en route to victory in the night's final. Humphries was the number one seed as the league leader so was up against number 8 seed Peter Wright in the quarter-finals, he defeated Wright 6–1. In the semi-finals Humphries faced Nathan Aspinall, winning 6–4, and in the final Humphries achieved another triumph over Michael Smith, 6–2.

Night nine at the SSE Arena, Belfast saw Humphries' winning streak come to an end, losing to Luke Littler 6–5 in a deciding leg. On night ten at the Manchester Arena, Humphries lost in the quarter-finals for a second consecutive week, with Michael Smith beating him 6–3. On night eleven at Arena Birmingham and night twelve at Rotterdam Ahoy, Humphries made the semi-finals, with a 6–4 over Peter Wright and Michael van Gerwen in the respective quarter-finals being followed by another deciding leg loss to Luke Littler on night eleven and a 6–4 loss to Nathan Aspinall on night twelve in the respective semi-finals.

Night thirteen at the Liverpool Arena saw Humphries again defeated by Nathan Aspinall, losing 6–2 in their quarter-final match. On night fourteen at P&J Live, Aberdeen, Humphries was given a bye due to his quarter-final opponent Gerwyn Price withdrawing from the night. Humphries lost 6–5 to Rob Cross in the semi-final. Having previously announced that he would be changing his walk-on song from "Cake by the Ocean" by DNCE from night fifteen onwards, Humphries premiered his new walk-on song "I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs on Night 15 at the Leeds Arena. Humphries defeated Rob Cross and Michael Smith each by a 6–1 margin, before beating Michael van Gerwen 6–5 in the final to win the night. Humphries announced he would raffle off his match-worn shirt from night fifteen and donate the proceeds to the Rob Burrow Foundation, a charity for motor neurone disease. Night sixteen at the Utilita Sheffield Arena saw Humphries win 6–4 over Gerwyn Price in the quarter-final. He defeated Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final and lost 3–6 to Michael Smith in the final. After sixteen nights, Luke Humphries finished second in the Premier League table behind Luke Littler. This drew Humphries against Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final of the playoffs, held in The O2 Arena, London. He won the semi-final 10–5 to advance to the final against Luke Littler. Humphries lost 11–7 to Littler.

At the 2025 World Championship, Humphries began his title defence with a 3–0 whitewash win over Thibault Tricole followed by a 4–0 victory against Nick Kenny, setting up a fourth round tie against Peter Wright. In the lead-up to the match, much attention was brought to what Humphries and Wright had to say about each other in their respective post-match interviews. Wright stated that he was ready to upset tournament favourites Humphries and Luke Littler, claiming that he could compete with and be better than them despite calls for him to retire. Humphries responded after his win against Nick Kenny, accusing Wright of "mind games". Humphries added, "I’m one world title away from almost matching his career, and I’m about 25 years younger, so I think one world title would match everything he’s ever achieved in the game." In their match, Humphries leveled the contest at 1–1 before dropping the next three sets to lose to Wright 4–1, ending his tenure as world champion.