Since its introduction in 2005, the Premier League has provided darts fans with countless moments that will live long in the memory. Throughout its 21-year existence so far, the Premier League Darts has had nine different champions, 19 nine-dart finishes and close to 50 players have featured in it.

From Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld to Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler, the darts Premier League has included a who’s who of darting superstars over the years, with the sport’s most lucrative invitational event touring the largest indoor arenas across the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Ahead of the 2026 Premier League Darts season kicking off in Newcastle on February 5, Darts Corner has delved into the archive to compile a list of our 10 most memorable moments in the tournament’s history. Featuring unforgettable matches, checkouts and nine-dart legs, here’s our look at some of the most iconic moments in Premier League Darts history...

The world of darts was turned on its head when Raymond van Barneveld jumped ship from the BDO to join the PDC in 2006. At the time, Phil Taylor was the dominant force in the PDC having just won his 11th World Championship in the organisation (13th overall), while van Barneveld was considered the top player in the BDO with four Lakeside titles to his name.

A month after losing to fellow Dutchman Jelle Klaasen in the final of the 2006 BDO World Championship, van Barneveld was unveiled as a wildcard for the Premier League, taking the seventh and final spot in the tournament. The first big-stage meeting in the PDC between Taylor and van Barneveld was highly anticipated, with the two rivals facing off in front of 3,000 fans at the Bournemouth International Centre in week five of the competition.

‘Barney’ played two matches on the night as he opened the show in Bournemouth by taking on the three-time World Championship finalist Peter Manley. Van Barneveld sent a message to Taylor with an 8-3 victory against Manley which saw him strike darting perfection, throwing the first nine darter in Premier League history in the ninth leg of the match. Later that night, Taylor and van Barneveld played out a 7-7 draw, with ‘The Power’ missing two match darts and ‘Barney’ winning the last three legs to snatch a share of the points.

As far as memorable Premier League debuts go, they do not get much better than James Wade’s back in 2008. ‘The Machine’ had qualified for darts’ biggest roadshow for the first time after winning his first two PDC majors in 2007, lifting both the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix titles. And Wade’s first assignment as a Premier League player was a meeting with the then reigning three-time Premier League champion Phil Taylor.

‘The Power’ went into the 2008 Premier League season still boasting an unbeaten record with 39 wins and five draws from his 44 matches. However, that run would come to an end on the opening night in Glasgow, as Wade marked his debut appearance in the Premier League with an 8-6 victory against Taylor. A closely-fought contest in the Scottish capital saw the two players locked at 6-6, before Wade took both of the game’s last two legs to hand Taylor his first defeat in the Premier League.

Since Taylor’s trio of unbeaten seasons from 2005 to 2007, there has only been one more occasion (Taylor in 2010) when a player has completed a Premier League campaign without tasting a single defeat. The change in format to a nightly tournament in 2022 means it is even more unlikely now that anyone will ever go a whole season unbeaten again or come close to matching Taylor’s 44-match unbeaten streak.

"It's absolutely incredible and possibly the greatest moment of my career.” Those were the words of Phil Taylor after he threw not one, but two nine-dart legs in the 2010 Premier League Darts final. The pair of perfect legs from ‘The Power’ at Wembley Arena was the first, and to date, only time a player has thrown multiple nine darters in a match on television.

It was a night that has gone down in darting folklore, with Taylor defeating James Wade 10-8 in the final to claim his fifth Premier League title in six years, and regain the trophy after Wade had won the tournament for the first time in 2009. The first of Taylor’s nine darters came in just the second leg of the final, with scores of 174 and 180 followed by a 147 checkout. ‘The Power’ repeated the feat in the 15th leg, firing in two maximums and a 141 finish to make history.

Reflecting on his historic achievement, Taylor said: "I've won every title in the PDC and I don't think I can ever do better than this – it's the proudest day of my life. Everything I've done for the last 30 years has all come together. It's been my dream to do this."

Michael van Gerwen is the most successful player in Premier League Darts history, having won a record seven titles during his career so far. The first of those victories came in his debut season in the Premier League back in 2013, when he dethroned his great rival Phil Taylor in the final. The pair had faced off in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at the start of that year, with ‘The Power’ defeating the young Dutchman 7-4 to claim his record-extending 16th world title.

Van Gerwen’s run to his first world final had seen him climb up to #4 in the world rankings, with his growing stardom continuing in the league phase of the Premier League as he topped the table after 16 weeks to head into the play-offs at The O2, in London, as the top seed. Van Gerwen and Taylor were on a collision course to meet in another big final, with ‘The Power’ qualifying for the end of season finale as the third seed.

In the semi-finals, Taylor saw off Raymond van Barneveld 8-4 and van Gerwen got the better of James Wade by the same scoreline, to set up a mouth-watering showdown for the Premier League crown. A thrilling final saw van Gerwen turn down a shot at the bullseye and Taylor punished his opponent with a 160 checkout to level the match at 7-7. A last-leg decider looked to be on the cards when Taylor, trailing 9-8, left tops after 12 darts, but ‘Mighty Mike’ had other ideas as he produced a stunning 132 finish on the bull to win 10-8 and claim his first Premier League title.

Raymond van Barneveld’s illustrious career has seen him win five World Championships across the BDO and the PDC, along with many other major titles, but perhaps his most impressive tournament win came at the 2014 Premier League. ‘Barney’ had qualified for the play-offs at The O2 as the number two seed, finishing ahead of Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson on legs difference in the table, having lost just three games during the league phase.

Despite that, the Dutch veteran was considered the underdog of the four players on finals night. But van Barneveld upset the odds as he defeated Taylor and Michael van Gerwen to become the Premier League champion for the first time. After beating the 16-time world champion and his old rival Taylor 8-5 in the semi-finals, ‘Barney’ then saw off his fellow Dutchman van Gerwen 10-6 in the final to clinch the title. It was the first time van Barneveld had beaten Taylor in the Premier League, having lost 16 and drawn four of their previous 20 meetings in the competition.

“This means the world to me - I can’t describe how happy I am,” van Barneveld said after beating the top two ranked players in the world to win the title. “Beating Phil and Michael in one night is fantastic. It felt like a relief beating Phil for the first time in the Premier League, but it’s all about faith and belief, and if you never ever believe then you can’t achieve anything.”

Michael van Gerwen wrote his name into the darts history books with a world record televised average of 123.40 during the 2016 Premier League. The Dutchman thrashed Michael Smith 7-1 at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, and produced the highest ever average in a match on television in the process.

Van Gerwen needed just 66 darts as he raced into a 6-0 lead against Smith, winning the opening six legs in 11, 12, 11, 12, 10 and 10 darts. ‘Mighty Mike’ would then miss double 18 to complete a whitewash 7-0 win that would have seen him post an average over 130! But van Gerwen would still make history, taking the next leg to complete a 7-1 win that saw him break the world record televised average.

Phil Taylor had previously held that record with 118.66, which was set back in 2010, with van Gerwen smashing that record by almost five points. After setting a new world record average, van Gerwen said: "when I was 6-0 up I realised I could make some records and I missed a couple of doubles. I hope I can do this many more times in the future." Ten years later, van Gerwen’s record still stands - will it ever be beaten?

The 2017 Premier League Darts season had arguably the most dramatic finish ever as Michael van Gerwen survived six match darts to defeat Peter Wright in the play-off final. ‘Snakebite’ looked poised to land the biggest title of his career, up to that point, and finally beat his rival van Gerwen in a major final. The Scot raced into a 7-2 lead in the final against van Gerwen, but saw his opponent fight back to only trail by a single leg at 10-9 behind.

Wright started the 20th leg with scores of 140, 180 and 149 to leave 32 after just nine darts and be on the cusp of a famous victory. However, it would be an agonising end to the match for ‘Snakebite’ as he would miss one dart at double 16 and five darts at double eight to clinch the title. A reprieved van Gerwen hit double 10 to force a deciding leg, where he opened up with a 180 and checked out 88 for a 12-dart leg to complete an unlikely turnaround.

"Peter started playing well again and I don't know how he missed six darts for the match,” van Gerwen reflected. “A player of his quality normally hits the double, but for some reason he missed them. This was a really crazy game.” A defiant Wright said: "You've got to learn to lose before you win, and I'm not going to lose any more - the wins are coming." Three years later, Wright would get one over van Gerwen in a major final - and the biggest one of them all - as he defeated ‘Mighty Mike’ in the final of the 2019/20 PDC World Darts Championship.

The 2019 and 2020 Premier League Darts seasons saw the PDC introduce the ‘contenders/challengers’ concept, as a selection of players were given the opportunity to play on one night of the competition. John Henderson competed in both years on the Aberdeen leg of the Premier League, with his debut in 2019 seeing him delight his home crowd by earning a 6-6 draw against Michael van Gerwen.

The Huntly resident was welcomed into the arena to “Flower of Scotland” by a bagpiper and battled back from 3-0 and 5-2 down to secure a draw with the then world number one van Gerwen. A proud Henderson reflected: "I don't think I've ever witnessed anything like that in my career, it was tremendous. I felt emotional on the walk-on and I didn't want to go up there and play badly. To play the best player in the world in your home town, and get a draw, has left me almost speechless.”

Other highlights from the ‘contenders/challengers’ years in the Premier League included Fallon Sherrock drawing 6-6 with Glen Durrant in Nottingham, the challenger Luke Humphries defeating Gary Anderson 7-5 in Exeter, and Willie O’Connor’s epic walk on to “Zombie” in Dublin.

Jose De Sousa’s nickname is ‘The Special One’ and he lived up to that tag when he checked out 120 by hitting three double 20s during the 2021 Premier League season. The 2020 Grand Slam of Darts champion started his match with Nathan Aspinall on night 16 of the competition with a memorable finish, often referred to as ‘Shanghai’, by going the unorthodox route of hitting a trio of double 20s, instead of the more conventional treble, single and double route.

It was a moment which caused Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle to lose his voice in the commentary box, with Mark Webster stepping in shortly after to replace Mardle for the rest of the match! De Sousa said: “It was a great feeling to play so well in front of this amazing crowd. Three double tops was for the fans, but I wanted to show it can be done.”

In the 2024 Premier League, Luke Littler replicated De Sousa’s infamous three tops 120 checkout, as he hit a hat-trick of double 20s to finish 120 in his match against Peter Wright in Sheffield.

The Luke Littler era officially took off when ‘The Nuke’ won his first major title at the 2024 Premier League. Then aged just 17, Littler threw a nine-dart leg on his way to an 11-7 victory against Luke Humphries in the play-off final, in front of a record crowd of 14,000 at The O2 in London.

Finals night in the 2024 Premier League attracted the biggest UK crowd in PDC history, with those in attendance witnessing history as the teenager became the youngest ever winner of a PDC major title. The two Lukes had met just four months earlier in the final of the 2023/24 PDC World Darts Championship, with Humphries rallying from 4-2 down to beat his younger rival 7-4 to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy.

There next meeting in a major final came in the Premier League, with both Lukes marking their first full seasons in the competition by going all the way to the play-off final. With the score locked at 5-5 at the interval, Littler returned after the break and fired in an incredible nine-dart leg, before going on to win five of the next seven legs to complete a memorable first major triumph in the PDC.

Pictures: PDC