Every leg of darts has to end on a double, so every top player has one they trust above the rest.
Averages and 180s tend to drive the PDC World Championship odds, but tight matches are usually settled by whoever finishes better. Darts Orakel’s segment data shows which doubles the leading players rely on, and why so many of them end up on 16.
Luke Littler
Littler’s reputation was built on double 10. Across 2024,, he hit 50% of his darts at it on TV and stream, according to Darts Orakel. No player in the world had a better rate on any double with more than 100 attempts.
His numbers have shifted since. Over the last 18 months he has hit double 10 at 36.76%, below tops at 40.98% and double 16 at 40%. His best regular target is double five at 47.25%, which is where he lands when a dart at double 10 drops into the single. He retained his world title in January 2026, beating Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final.
Luke Humphries
Humphries is a double 16 player and has said so himself. He has spoken of loving the double, and of the double-start format at the World Grand Prix bringing out the best in him. That event makes players hit a double to start each leg as well as to finish it. He won it for the second time in October 2026, recovering from 3-0 down to beat Gerwyn Price 6-4 in Leicester.
The data matches what he says. He hits double 16 at 39.07% and double eight at 41.42%. Tops is a clear weak spot at 32.03%.
Gian van Veen
Van Veen leans on the same route as Humphries. In July 2023, Darts Orakel named him the year’s best double 16 hitter, with 57% of his darts at it landing on TV and stream among players who had more than 30 attempts.
That preference has held. Over the last 18 months, he has hit double 16 at 41.97% and double eight at 45.51%, compared with 37.57% on tops. Because 16 halves to eight, a dart that drops into the single 16 leaves him on his best double.
Gerwyn Price
Price is the purest tops player among the leading names. PDC stats analyst Christopher Kempf found in December 2024 that about 40% of his double attempts were at double 20.
He still goes there more than anywhere else. His 43.97% on tops is the best of the 14 players checked for this piece. He has thrown fewer than 50 darts at double 16 in 18 months, under the level Darts Orakel needs before it counts a double as a regular target. James Wade is the only other player in that group below the mark on 16.
Michael van Gerwen
Van Gerwen has changed doubles more than most. In the 2023 Premier League, he was the most accurate player on double 18 at 55.26% and on double 10 at 43.9%.
Over the last 18 months, his strongest double is eight, at 42.02%. Double 16 comes next at 38.07%, with tops at 37.58%. Double 10 has fallen to 30%.
Why D16?
The answer starts with halving. A player on 32 who misses into the single 16 is left on 16, or double eight. Another miss into the single leaves double four, then double two, then double one. That is four misses without needing a set-up dart.
Tops runs out sooner. A miss into the single 20 leaves double 10, but a miss into the single 10 leaves five, an odd number that needs a set-up dart.
The layout of the board helps too. Double 16 sits between the seven and the eight. A dart that drifts into the single eight from 32 leaves 24, which is double 12. A dart that drifts into the single one or single five beside tops leaves an odd number.
The hit rates follow the arithmetic. Across the top 128 players over the last 18 months, Darts Orakel puts the average on double 16 at 39.44%, against 36.8% on tops. Double eight, the next stop on the same route, is highest of all at 42.02%.
Scoring tends to move the darts odds, but Wessel Nijman shows what finishing adds. He sits fifth on Darts Orakel’s 12-month averages list and has the best double 16 rate of the 14 players checked, landing 50.57% of his darts at it.
