After 16 days of darting drama, we’ve reached the culmination of the Paddy Power World Darts Championship.

Last night, both Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen brushed aside their semi final opponents 6-1, ending Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey’s dream of becoming champion.

Now, both The Nuke and MvG stand on the edge of glory, in a showdown that has been a year in the making.

Generational matches for the big prize don’t come around very often. Two that spring to mind are Dennis Priestley v Phil Taylor in the first PDC World Darts Championship back in 1994, followed by Taylor against van Gerwen in 2013.

12 years on from the last, it’s time for Littler and van Gerwen to create the latest chapter in their rivalry, as generational talents once again collide.

We assess both contenders ahead of the 2025 Paddy Power World Darts Championship Final.

Littler bids to go one better than 12 months ago

366 days ago, Luke Littler had a 4-2 lead in the 2024 World Darts Championship Final against the world number one, Luke Humphries. He then had a dart at double two for a 5-2 lead, and in all likelihood the match.

He missed it, and didn’t win another set, as Cool Hand came from behind to win an epic 7-4.

Since then, The Nuke has produced a debut season on tour for the ages. He won 10 titles, including the Premier League, and the Grand Slam in November.

He was the tournament favourite with title sponsors Paddy Power, and the pressure seemed to be telling for the first three sets of his opening game with Ryan Meikle. However, in the fourth set, he hit the highest set average in World Darts Championship history, as he won 3-1.

He then came through Ian White 4-1, followed by a last set thriller against Ryan Joyce 4-3 in round four. Since the New Year though, like Humphries 12 months ago, he’s saved his best performances until last. He hit a 101.54 average in his 5-2 defeat of Nathan Aspinall in the quarter finals, followed by a stunning 105.48 in his demolition of Bunting last night.

The Nuke has hit nine ton plus averages in his first 12 games at Alexandra Palace, something no other player has got close to. He’s also 18 180s from breaking the record of most maximums in a tournament, and could take home the Ballon D’Art as well.

After last year’s agonising loss, and after capturing the sporting world’s attention again this year, will Littler become the youngest ever PDC World Darts Championship winner and reach the top of the darting universe?

MvG looks for fourth World Darts Championship

Standing in his way is the man who is into his seventh Paddy Power World Darts Championship Final, and looking to not have a losing record in them, having won three and lost three previously.

Coming into this tournament, Michael van Gerwen was not being discussed a winner for the first time in over a decade. He’d not won a TV title in 2024, only the second time that had happened since 2011. He’d only won three ranking titles, one on the Euro Tour and two on the Pro Tour. In short, it was an extremely poor season for The Green Machine.

MvG though has slowly built through the rounds at Alexandra Palace, starting with a comfortable 3-0 win over James Hurrell in round two. Both Brendan Dolan in round three and Jeffrey De Graaf in round four tested him in patches, but the Dutchman came through both of the matches 4-2.

In the quarter finals, he hit a 103.1 average against Callan Rydz to win 5-3, in a match that featured 31 180s and saw Rydz himself average 103.88. Van Gerwen though, won all four sets that went to a deciding leg. To quote him, he did the right things at the right moments, before beating Dobey last night with a 98.8 average to reach the showpiece game once again.

Van Gerwen is desperate to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy again. Since he beat Michael Smith 7-3 on New Year’s Day in 2019, he’s lost to Peter Wright in 2020, followed by Smith himself in 2023 which of course featured the greatest leg of all time.

Can he do to Littler what Phil Taylor did to him in 2013, and move one behind his Dutch rival Raymond van Barneveld?

Winner will take lead in head to head as well as Sid Waddell Trophy

We normally like to look for clues to see who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship. This one though is as close as there’s ever been to call.

The pair met 12 times in 2024, mainly in unranked events. However, they finished the year with six wins apiece.

Littler beat van Gerwen to win the Bahrain Darts Masters in January 2024, but MvG turned the tables on him in the Dutch Darts Masters a week later. It was 3-3 between the pair in the Premier League as well, but interestingly, van Gerwen beat Littler in both finals that they played during the 17 week event.

Perhaps their most significant game of the year came in the first round of the World Matchplay, in what was arguably the most anticipated round one game in the competition’s history. There, The Green Machine saw off The Nuke 10-5, en route to narrowing losing the final to world number one Humphries.

Littler though has won their last two meetings, both in the last four of the World Series of Darts Finals, and a quarter final match in the last European Tour which featured simply ridiculous numbers.

Now, one of them is about to take the lead in their rivalry, which will also see them lift the Sid Waddell Trophy later tonight, with the action underway from 19.30 GMT.

Everything points to a classic Paddy Power World Darts Championship Final. Will the old King of the Palace return to the throne? Or will the Prince finally claim the crown for himself?

By the end of the evening, we’ll know who is the main attraction on planet darts for 2025. You won’t want to miss it.