Luke Littler and Ronnie O’Sullivan agree on if 147 or nine-darter is more durable to realize
Luke Littler has offered his view on the age-old debate of whether a nine-dart leg in darts is a more difficult feat than a 147 break in snooker, agreeing with Ronnie O’Sullivan’s assessment
Luke Littler agrees with Ronnie O’Sullivan that a 147 break in snooker is more challenging than achieving a nine-dart leg.
The 18-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday (January 21), won the PDC World Darts Championship earlier this month by defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at Alexandra Palace. Despite his success in darts, including several nine-dart finishes last year, Littler believes that the precision required for a 147 break in snooker is harder.
“I think it has to be a 147,” he told BBC Sport. “I don’t know the rules of snooker. What is it? You pot a red ball, you pot a coloured ball, and you just go over and over again. It’s really hard. I’d say a 147 is a lot harder.”
This viewpoint aligns with snooker legend O’Sullivan’s argument that a 147 break requires four times as much work as a nine-dart leg. “The 147 must be harder, I think,” O’Sullivan told Eurosport in 2023.
“I think what you guys do on a dartboard and the way you make it look so easy is just unbelievable, so total respect to you guys. Just being able to make a 147 or a nine-darter is a great achievement, but I tend to agree – maybe the 147 might be slightly harder, just because it’s 36 shots and you’ve got only nine to do. We have to do four times the amount of work that you do.”
Despite sharing a sentiment similar to that of the darts legend Raymond van Barneveld, O’Sullivan admitted that comparing it up to a hole-in-one may be a tougher contest. The stats would suggest the contrary, with 210 recognised max snooker breaks surpassing the 96 televised nine-darters.
However, the bar has been raised in both sports. While the 1980s saw a mere eight 147s, that number has rocketed to 55 since 2020.
Darts has mirrored this explosive growth; from just a couple of nine-dart finishes before 2001, 42 have dazzled audiences since the turn of the decade.
