The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship was nothing short of thrilling, offering fans dramatic comebacks, emotional moments, and a stunning victory by 17-year-old Luke Littler. Littler, hailed as one of the brightest young talents in darts, made history by becoming the youngest-ever world champion—a feat that has captured the imagination of fans and media alike. Adding to the excitement, darts legend Michael van Gerwen faced Littler in the final, creating a clash of generations that will be remembered for years to come.

This analysis will focus on the United Kingdom – a key market for darts, not only because the sport originated there but also due to its immense popularity and dedicated fan base. As the host country for the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, the UK provided a unique opportunity to explore how the event was reflected in search engine visibility. By examining data from the Trisolute News Dashboard, this analysis identifies the most visible publishers and the keywords that ranked during the event.

We looked at the date range from 15 December 2024 to 5 January 2025 to cover the whole event as well as the follow-up reporting on the weekend after the final (3 January). The focus of this analysis is the Mobile Visibility Overall (Ranking Types: News Box (Headline, Text, and Carousel), Video Box, Publisher Carousel, Other Carousel, Web Story, Featured Snippet, Visual Digest, and Organic Rankings), with keywords sourced from Google News and Google Trends.

Which keywords generated the most rankings, and which UK publishers made it to the top 5 for this event? Let’s have a look. Game on!

Which keywords ranked during the World Darts Championship?

The following list shows all keywords fitting the filter settings above that are related to the Darts Championship in terms of content. We reduced our focus to all keywords that generated 200 or more rankings, as those cover the most relevant ones and guarantee a clear overview.

Keyword insights

• Total rankings: The total number of rankings across the above-listed darts-related keywords reached 107,438, with the top 10 keywords accounting for over 50% of the total visibility.
• Dominance of Luke Littler: Keywords related to the 17-year-old winner, Luke Littler, dominated the visibility landscape, accounting for nearly 23% of all darts-related keywords. With 16 keywords contributing to this dominance, the keyword ‘luke littler’ alone generated an impressive 13,300 rankings, far surpassing the next most-ranked keyword, ‘darts’, which amassed 6,657 rankings. Interestingly, the keyword ‘luke littler girlfriend’ (1,382 rankings) outperformed ‘michael van gerwen’ (1,242 rankings), even though he was in the championship’s finale alongside littler. In total, keywords related to van Gerwen made up 4% of the total rankings.
• General vs. specific keywords: General terms such as ‘darts’, ‘darts results’, and ‘world darts championship’ collectively contributed to a substantial number of rankings (30,35% of total rankings). However, specific terms, particularly keywords containing full player names (e.g., ‘peter wright’, ‘luke littler world darts championship), consistently outperformed generic terms, comprising 60% of all darts-related rankings. In comparison, keywords containing surnames alone (e.g., ‘littler darts’, ‘bunting’) generated only 7% of the total amount of rankings. This suggests that the use of full names in relation to darts could lead to an increased amount of rankings.
• Story-driven keywords: Keywords such as ‘darts tears’, darts hospital’, and ‘donna mardle’ (player Wayne Mardle’s recently deceased wife) showcase the visibility of emotional or dramatic moments during the championship. The inclusion of keywords relating to the players’ partners (‘michael van gerwen wife’, nathan aspinell wife’) also suggests an interest in the athletes’ personal lives.
• Financial curiosity in darts: The prominence of finance-related keywords, such as ‘darts prize money’, ‘luke littler net worth’, and ‘michael van gerwen net worth’, highlights the growing interest in the financial side of the sport. This interest in finances could be tied to a broader trend in sports reporting, where monetary success is often equated with professional achievement.

Top UK publishers:

Visibility of the top 5 UK publishers for the 2025 World Darts Championship

The visibility trends in the mobile search rankings from 15 December 2024 to 5 January 2025 reveal distinct courses among the top publishers covering the World Darts Championship in the UK.

1. Sky Sports.com

Sky Sports capitalised on key moments throughout the World Darts Championship, with noticeable spikes on 18 December during the first round and on 28 December after the third round. Leading up to the final on 3 Jan, Sky Sports visibility decreases slightly, though they are still above their competitors on that day. The top keyword for this publisher was ‘luke littler’, with 1,683 rankings, and their top article was Darts Results & News | Sky Sports.

2. YouTube.com

YouTube maintained consistent visibility throughout the championship, with spikes on 26 December (beginning of round 3) and 30 December (end of round of 16). Their visibility rises after the finale on 3 January, suggesting a broad interest in video-related content of the championship’s key moment. YouTube’s top video (article) The moment Luke Littler WON the 2025 World Darts Championship 🔥 supports this assumption. Like it was the case with Sky Sports, YouTube’s top keyword was also ‘luke littler’, with 2,553 generated rankings.

3. BBC.co.uk

BBC.co.uk saw steady visibility across the tournament, with the most notable peak on 21 December during round two, showcasing a dramatic surge in visibility. After this, the publishers’ visibility decreases again, and on Boxing Day (26 December), their visibility falls down to zero. Another slight peak can be observed on 2 January, where the semifinals took place. BBC.co.uk’s top keyword was ‘darts results’, with 1,114 rankings, and their top article was Darts Results – BBC Sport, suggesting a more general and informative coverage of the event.

4. The Sun.com

The Sun’s visibility spiked on 25 December (one day prior to the beginning of round three), putting it above all other competitors for that day. For the remainder of the time, this publisher shows a steady course in visibility without any notable ups or downs. Their top keyword is ‘luke littler’ (487 rankings), the same as it was the case with competitors Sky Sports and YouTube.

5. BBC.com

With BBC.com, the British Broadcasting Corperation takes yet another spot among the top 5 publishers with its international domain. They maintained a steady visibility throughout the event, with an outstanding peak in visibility on 19 December (during round one), which catapults them in first place for that day. Like BBC.co.uk, BBC.com sees their visibility near zero on Boxing Day (26 December), before rising to another slight peak on 29 December (beginning of the round of 16).

Key Insights

Check out our other articles we have written on the topic of sports lately:

• A news SEO keyword review on the 2024 Olympics
• An extensive real-time analysis on the EURO 2024
• A cross-country analysis of all sports-related keywords in 2024

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