Luke Littler hits ONE MILLION followers on Instagram.. more than double that of the next-highest darts rival

LUKE LITTLER has become the first darts player ever to hit ONE MILLION followers on Instagram.

The 16-year-old Warrington wonderkid managed to reach the final during the World Darts Championship, becoming the most talked about sports star in the UK and pocketing £200,000 in prize money.

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Luke Littler became the first darts star to hit one million followers on Instagram[/caption]

Instagram

He hit the landmark milestone less than a week after the PDC world final[/caption]

But now he’s the biggest darts star on Instagram ahead of world champions Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith and new World No1 Luke Humphries.

Littler has double the followers of Dutch ace MVG who has 453,000 liking his page.

Price follows in third place with 275,000 followers, while 2023 world champion Smith currently has 208,000.

Reigning world champion Humphries has 149,000 followers on Instagram at the time of writing.

That leaves the new No1 trailing Peter Wright (178,000) Raymond van Barneveld (167,000) and Fallon Sherrock (155,000) as well.

The actual PDC itself, by the way, has 551,000 followers on Instagram.

Littler took to his Instagram story to thank his fans as he hit the landmark milestone.

He then shared a screenshot of a direct message from Humphries congratulating the teenager.

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Humphries joked: “Bro you need to tell some of them to follow me! That’s mad. Congrats man.”

Littler shared the message and added: “Come on everyone give the champ some followers,” followed by a winking emoji.

And it appeared to do the trick as Humphries’ tally jumped from 133,000 earlier today to the current count of 149k.

Littler and Humphries met in a match four years ago, when Littler was aged just 12, and then again at Ally Pally for last week’s PDC final.

And they won’t have as long to wait for their next match – because the pair were both selected for the new Premier League season.

Littler will make his first competitive appearance since his magical Worlds run next week when he steps up to the oche in Bahrain.

The two-day World Series of Darts event in the Middle East pits eight PDC stars against eight Asian representatives.

He then is set to appear in the Dutch Darts Masters before the end of January – just days after turning 17.

And then he joins seven of the world’s best players at the 16-week invitational Premier League tournament which kicks off in Cardiff on February 1.

Away from darts, Littler is being tipped to rake in a staggering £40m from brand deals – including becoming the ‘face of frozen doner meat’ at Iceland after sales boomed during the Kebab Kid’s Ally Pally run.

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Littler has more than double the number of followers of Michael van Gerwen[/caption]

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Luke Humphries beat Littler to be crowned world champion but jokingly appealed for more followers[/caption]