The sport has taken the world by storm, and its popularity will grow as more and more spectators tune in to professional darts competitions. At the heart of the world’s giant darts is the World Professional Darts Championships, one of the most critical events in the entire sport from 1978 to 1992. Despite its popularity, European countries have traditionally dominated the sport. If you look at the statistics, darts are the most popular in the UK and US.
It is probably an exaggeration to say that darts are Europe’s second most popular sport after football. Most people in the US (and around the world) play darts. Although darts are not as popular in some countries, in others, people playing darts can be found in any country. While darts was once considered a hobby or a pub game, it has seen massive growth in the number of professional players, spectators, prize money, and active nations. It is even considered a sport that could be represented at the Olympics.
Soft Darts have gained such popularity worldwide that it has virtually eliminated darts in many countries. Darts or dart throwing is both professional shooting and a traditional pub game. Darts are commonly played in the UK and Ireland, as well as around the world. Darts is one of the oldest English pub games and has become one of the most popular sports in the world since the late 1970s. As his Vince McMahon-Esque manager Barry Hearn likes to say, Darts is a world-class sport played at parties. British sports organiser Barry Hearn once described darts as the perfect combination of world-class sport and party.
In terms of US players, the US is one of the most prominent darts players. Countries like Canada, Japan and Spain have many darts fans. They are often overlooked because countries like Canada don’t have much representation regarding professional players. Even without big names in the professional darts board rankings, England is still one of the best nations in the world for darts. The limited number of top players compared to the enormous total is mainly due to the lack of subsistence dart players in the US. Darts slowly spread to other European countries and countries like China and Dubai. Darts are also played in many African countries such as Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Of particular importance is the global annual event, known as one of the best darts events in the world for its excellent organisation, with over 5,000 participants from 17 different countries a yearly international event.