In the almost complete absence of sunshine during the short, gray days of December and January in England, there are, it can be said, some sources of light. A cozy fire in a pub. Christmas trees in warmly lit living rooms. Strings of lights along shop-lined streets all over the country.
And on a hill in north London, there are men throwing darts.
The annual World Darts Championship, which started on Dec. 15 and concludes on Friday, has become a staple of Christmas and New Year’s in the British capital. Played on a brightly lit stage in front of thousands of spectators — many in costumes — it is also perhaps the rowdiest, hardest-to-get-into party in London during the festive period.
Millions of people across Europe and beyond watch live on TV, and nearly 100,000 fans have attended the 2024-25 edition at Alexandra Palace, a sprawling, Victorian-era venue known as “Ally Pally.”
Inside, most of the crowd is male, and many of them wear costumes, part of a tradition at the event to show support for the players through a bit of humor. There is no discernible theme. Look around and you’ll see Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompas; nuns; popes; a Jamaican bobsled team; bananas; traffic cones; super heroes; soccer players; and much more.
Most fans bought their tickets as far back as July. They traveled from other countries. They left their children with their spouse or a babysitter. They’re ready for a beer or two (or four, or eight).
This year, the 90,000 tickets for just over two weeks of darts at the Ally Pally sold out within 15 minutes, according to Barry Hearn, the president and former chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation, which runs the competition. “I could’ve sold over 300,000,” Hearn boasted.
But it’s not just a giant party. Professional darts has transformed over the last two decades, largely guided by Hearn, from a pastime practiced in musty pubs by middle-aged men to an international phenomenon. The sport brings in millions of dollars in advertising revenue and ticket sales at the top level, centered in Britain, and the prize money at leading competitions can catapult winners into a higher social class.
Last year’s competition also featured a bona fide fan sensation in the form of the British teenager Luke Littler, nicknamed “the Nuke,” who made it to the final at age 16. His success has started to attract more young people to the sport, Hearn said.
Hearn sees even more room for growth for this old game, which originated in the 14th century, when soldiers threw sharp things at targets to pass the time. About a third of TV viewers of the championship are now women, he said, a sign that the sport is attracting more female players and fans. Two women qualified for the championship this year.
An even bigger target is the United States, where professional darts is also growing in popularity. The P.D.C. holds an annual competition in June at the 4,000-seater theater at Madison Square Garden. Over the years, those tickets have started selling faster, too, Hearn said. The crowds are not yet as rowdy as those in Britain, but they’re getting there, including the costumes.
The room at Ally Pally where the world championship takes place holds 3,200 people. Everyone sits close together, some at long tables, others in the stands. Imagine a very big pub on a good night out with all your best friends, and it’s also a costume party — and because it’s during the holidays, you probably don’t have to go into work the next day. The festive vibe is unspoiled by the smell inside the room, a mixture of stale beer and sweat coming through the seams of thousands of polyester costumes.
The quality of the dart-throwing itself may be improving, but for many fans at Ally Pally that is secondary — the rowdy, exuberant crowd is what makes the championship special, they said.
“The darts at Christmas, it’s just a British tradition,” said Colette Sullivan of Hampshire County, in southeast England. This was her first time attending, after having watched the tournament on TV for years.
Part of the fun, she said, was that fans did not seem to be as invested in the outcome of the competition as they would be for other popular sports in Britain (think: soccer). While people have favorite darts players, “it’s not a huge deal if they lose,” Ms. Sullivan said.
Most of the crowd is British, but large contingents of spectators come from other European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands. Ralf van den Heuvel, a Dutch fan attending the event for the fifth time, said, “I am here for the atmosphere.”
Others make little secret of their focus. “People come to get drunk,” said Shae Pooley, who came for the event from Cambridge with three friends. “The darts is kind of like an enabler.”
While fans make their way through pitchers of beer in the stands, the professionals hurling pointy objects are also having a good time, while trying to stay focused. Competitors practice for hours each day, and mental mathematics are paramount as they aim for tiny sections of the board in an effort to reduce the starting score of 501 to zero.
The championship ends with a final round on Friday, where the winner will take home 500,000 pounds (about $622,000).
Taking part in the championship is life-changing, said Nathan Aspinall — known as “The Asp” — an English player who advanced to a quarterfinal this week after beating Ricardo Pietreczko of Germany. Seven years ago, Aspinall was an anonymous accountant with a love for darts. Now he is one of the world’s top-ranked players, and on Monday, he entered the arena to the Killers’ anthem “Mr. Brightside” playing over the speakers as thousands of fans cheered. (On Wednesday, Aspinall lost to Littler, a friend of his, in a quarterfinal.)
It all amounts to a special experience for fans and players alike. Chris Dobey, an English darts player nicknamed “Hollywood” who advanced to the semifinals with a victory on Wednesday, said that playing in the atmosphere at Ally Pally is “every darts player’s dream.”
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