“Have you seen this guy, can you believe he’s only 16?”.

It became a meme during Luke Littler’s first year at the PDC World Darts Championships at the Ally Pally but his arrival on the scene has been nothing short of incredible.

He’s just 17-years-old, and on Friday night he takes part in his second World Darts Championship final. His rise to becoming one of the best players in the world isn’t a surprise to anyone who saw him during that first competition at the end of 2023, though.

He was a qualifier who was a 66/1 outsider prior to the tournament but defeated former world champions in Rob Cross and Raymond van Barneveld to reach the final, only to be defeated by his namesake Luke Humphries.

Humphries must have wondered what was going on, he had just won his first world title at the age of 28 – a relatively young world champion in the darts world – but the focus and attention was all on the runner up.

Luke Littler It’s been an incredible year for Littler since, both at the oche and away from the darts board. He was runner up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and has risen right through the world rankings to the top five.

That, in particular, is impressive given that darts is a two-year ranking system and Littler only has one year of experience.

He first picked up darts as an 18-month-old child after his dad bought a magnetic board and got him playing the sport. It was very quickly realised how talented he is and he was appearing in BDO and WDF events from the age of 12, becoming the youngest ever champion of a senior competition at the age of 14 in 2022.

The titles have been racked up ever since with victories in the Grand Slam of Darts, the Premier League and the World Series of Darts the biggest achievements of his short career so far.

His rise hasn’t been short of controversy either though. During his first World Championship last year, the age gap with his girlfriend became a notable talking point. While he was 16, Eloise Milburn was 21.

More recently, there was criticism of ITV presenter Adil Ray after he was accused of fat-shaming the 17-year-old.

Littler has previously admitted that he regularly eats pizza as his pre-match meal, while curry has also been a favourite of his during matches.

He also regularly eats sweets to keep him energised between sets and during last year’s championship he spoke about how his victory meal was a donner kebab.

That attracted concerns from the TV presenter and speaking on Good Morning Britain, he said: “I have to say and this might not be very popular, I'm a little bit worried about Luke. He's 17 and he's turning into the look of a darts player.

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“He is though. If I were his mum and dad, I mean, he's sort of - look at him.”

“He's admitted he has pizzas before a match and sits there playing computer games. I just think I'd be a bit worried.”

He has since been heavily criticised for airing his views and there have been calls for him to be removed from the air but that is yet to happen.

For Littler, his main focus is on continuing his darts career. If he manages to win the final, then he will be the youngest PDC World Champion, but even if he doesn’t manage it then he’ll have another seven years to achieve that with Michael van Gerwen the current holder at 24 years old.

He’s had appearances on the Jonathan Ross show, where social media found it funny how nonchalant he was when Millie Bobby Brown mentioned she was a big fan of him.

It’s the kind of thing that has made his performances at the oche so impressive, he’s been accused of being arrogant at times but the reality is he just knows how good he is.

The biggest selling point is he is just a typical 17-year-old boy. He's been spotted with vapes, and even admitted he would treat himself to some new ones after earning some big prize money last year, he loves playing FIFA and he likes eating pizza and other junk food.

The fact he's so talented with a dart in hand just means its easier for him to do that without his parents moaning about him spending all his time playing games with his pals on his Xbox.

He’s also getting younger people into the sport, with one shop owner in Staffordshire revealing that the sale of darts has gone up by around 50 percent since Littler emerged on the scene.

Prior to that, pool and snooker items made up 80 percent of the sales at Cue and Dart World, but owner Jenny Phillips has told the BBC that it is much closer to 50/50 now.

There’s still plenty of people who believes darts isn’t really a sport given the players used to often be drunk and smoking while taking part, but Littler’s emergence and the stranglehold he has on the game so far might have Phil Taylor looking over his shoulder as he holds onto the title of Greatest of All Time.