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 and received a PDC Tour Card for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He also won a PDC Challenge Tour title in Event 12, defeating Andy Smith 5–4 in the final. At the 2018 World Championship, he lost 2–0 to Jeff Smith in the preliminary round. He added another three titles to his name during the 2018 Development Tour, topping the Order of Merit once again.

At the 2019 World Championship, Humphries had his breakthrough event on television, beating Adam Hunt, Stephen Bunting, Dimitri Van den Bergh, and defending champion Rob Cross, before eventually losing 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, which ended in a 6–6 draw.

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

In the 2020 World Championship, Humphries once again reached the quarter-finals before losing 5–3 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. Humphries was the winner of PDC Home Tour 2 after winning five of his six Championship Group matches, beating Jonny Clayton based on leg difference.

In the 2021 World Championship, Humphries suffered a shock 3–2 first-round defeat to 66-year-old Paul Lim. He 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-finals and then-reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals. He was defeated 11–5 by James Wade in the final.

In the 2022 World Championship, Humphries reached his third quarter-final in four years before losing 5–2 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 4–1 to Stephen Bunting.

In October, 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 PDC 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 with a three-dart average of 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—the second highest average in a European Tour final. 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 August, Humphries won his first World Series of Darts title, defeating Damon Heta 8–2 to win the New Zealand Darts Masters.

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 from 1–0 down in sets and 2–0 down in legs in the second set 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, becoming only the third player in history to win the title in 2 consecutive years, after Taylor and van Gerwen.

Humphries lost his debut match at the 2024 Premier League Darts to Luke Littler 6–2. After the match, Humphries wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he felt "gutted" with the constant whistling and heckling at him during the match. On night three, Humphries beat Nathan Aspinall 6–3 and then defeated Gerwyn Price 6–3 in his semi-final match. Humphries lost to Michael van Gerwen 6–5 in the night's final.

Humphries won his first Premier League night on night six. Humphries began the night with a 6–2 victory over Gerwyn Price, followed by a 6–3 win over Rob Cross before a 6–3 defeat of Michael Smith in the final. Humphries won a second consecutive night on night seven, defeating 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 after making it three in a row on night eight, where he achieved another triumph over Michael Smith in a 6–2 victory in the final. Night nine saw Humphries' winning streak come to an end, losing to Luke Littler 6–5 in a deciding leg. 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 fifteen 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. On night sixteen, he lost 6–3 to Michael Smith in the final.

After sixteen nights, 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. He won the semi-final 10–5 to advance to the final, which he 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. By being number 1 on the Order of Merit, Humphries was selected as one of the 8 participants of the 2025 Premier League.