Analysis | The art of the 'big numbers': Why even the best darters mess up

Why do things go wrong so often?

A player is not always completely "guilty" of such a miss. Darts already in the board can block the view or the path. Sometimes the outcome is also less disastrous than it seems: those who aim for single 20 but accidentally hit double 20 simply end up on double 10 instead of double 20. For many players, that hardly makes a difference. Still, a wrong throw can often lead to awkward finishes, a missed chance at double or - at worst - a busted score.

The reactions of players often betray how important these moments are. A shake of the head, an irritated look or just a sigh of relief says it all: even the largest squares on the board require supreme concentration.

The most reliable players of 2025

Who have best mastered the art of the ankle box? So far, Chris Dobey is this season's standout. The Englishman records an impressive 97.5 percent accuracy: only one miss in forty attempts. In total, he only went wrong ten times out of almost four hundred attempts this year. Against Danny Noppert in Budapest, he accidentally hit double 14 instead of single 14, which contributed to his 6-2 defeat. But that incident takes little away from his status as the most reliable player in this field.

Even more impressive: with the first dart of a turn, Dobey hit his intended ankle box in 154 out of 155. That's a level of focus that seems almost superhuman.

Gerwyn Price also scored high. With 548 attempts and an average of 97.1 percent, the Welshman is among the absolute best. Callan Rydz goes even further: he has not missed a single box on a stage or stream match in over four months. And then, of course, there is prodigy Luke Littler, who is smashing all records on the triples. His score on the big numbers? A fairly average 94.4 percent. That sounds less spectacular, but is exactly what the PDC averages predict.

Hardly any difference

What is further striking: the difference between the best and worst single-squad throwers is small. It is only about 7 percentage points. Even the least accurate players hit their target in more than 90 percent of cases. That means no darter has to worry structurally about this part of the game.

This raises the question: why do analysts pay attention to this statistic at all? After all, it is not a decisive factor in profit or loss. The answer lies in the psychology of the sport. Hitting a singles box seems easy, especially compared to throwing 180s or checking out difficult finishes. Yet that is precisely where things often go wrong, as players lose concentration. So the difference is not so much in technical skill, but in mental discipline.

A player who takes the "simple" arrows seriously avoids unnecessary problems and keeps himself in the game. Dobey and Price show that it is precisely that constant focus that can set a player apart. Not because it instantly wins matches, but because it prevents a match from slipping out of his hands unnecessarily.