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A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly and hit a double scoring area with their last dart.
When the target is 501, the minimum number of darts needed to reach it is nine. For example, one way to achieve a nine-dart finish is to score 60 (treble 20) on each of the first seven throws, then a 57 (treble 19) on the eighth, and lastly a 24 (double 12) on the ninth. It is regarded as an extremely difficult feat to achieve—even for the sport's top players—and is considered the highest single-game achievement in the sport, similar to a Maximum break in snooker or a 300-point game in bowling.
The feat was first achieved on television by John Lowe in 1984, and it has since been accomplished in televised matches over a hundred times. Paul Lim was the first to hit a nine-darter in the World Championship, making history during the 1990 BDO World Darts Championship in a second-round victory over Jack McKenna. Phil Taylor has achieved the most on television, with 11, his first coming in 2002 and his last in 2015. Taylor and Michael van Gerwen are the only players to achieve two nine-darters in the same match—Taylor in the final of the 2010 Premier League against James Wade, and Van Gerwen against Ryan Murray during 2017 UK Open Qualifier 4. The following year, Brendan Dolan became the first to accomplish a nine-darter by starting and finishing with a double, as per the format of the World Grand Prix event of that year.
Adrian Lewis was the first player to hit a nine-darter in a World Championship final, doing so during the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship final against Gary Anderson. Twelve years later, Michael Smith repeated the feat in the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen, after Michael van Gerwen came within 1 dart of hitting a 9 darter himself. In 2013, Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson were the first players to hit a nine-darter on the same day, doing so on the second day of the 2014 PDC World Darts Championship. Wade and Robert Thornton were the first players to both achieve a perfect leg in the same match, doing so during the 2014 World Grand Prix. In 2023, Fallon Sherrock became the first woman to achieve the feat on television. At the 2024 Bahrain Darts Masters, Luke Littler became the youngest player to hit a televised nine-darter, accomplishing the feat two days before his 17th birthday.
Although many other combinations are possible, the traditional nine-dart finish requires a score of 60 (treble 20) with each of the first six throws: that is, with the first two shots of three. That leaves 141 to score on the final shot (of three darts), known as the outshot.
This outshot of 141 is traditionally performed in one of five ways:
Another way is to score 167 with each set of three darts, scoring 501 in total, in the following way:
By throwing each dart of a shot to a different place on the board, this eliminates the chance of any dart being deflected by an already thrown dart into the wrong scoring area but it is usually seen only in exhibition game matches, as in , players are inclined to aim for the treble 20, only switching to the treble 19 for a cover shot.
Arguably the most difficult nine-dart finish would be 180 (3×T20), 171 (3×T19), and 150 (3×bullseye) – owing to the difficulty of getting all three darts in the bullseye: it is the smallest double on the board.
A nine-dart finish is also attainable in games which require a double to start scoring (a double-in; such games are thus termed double-in double-out with the existing double-out requirement). In such games, throwing for double 20 first can lead to a maximum score of 160 with the first shot, leaving the thrower commonly requiring 180 then 161 (T20, T17, bullseye) with their remaining six darts, though other outshots are possible. It is worth noting that in these games, only throwing for double 20, double 17, or bullseye to start the leg can result in a nine-dart finish, and if the bullseye is not the double-in, it must be the double-out (it can be both, although this would require a highly unorthodox finish using two bullseyes, such as T17-Bull-Bull for a 151).
The total number of different ways of achieving 501 with nine darts is 3,944, of which 2,296 finish with the bullseye, 672 end on D20, 792 on D18, 56 end on D17, 120 end on D15, and 8 end on D12. 574 of the possible ways can be used in a double-in double-out game.
The first televised nine-dart finish was achieved at the MFI World Matchplay on 13 October 1984 by John Lowe, who checked out 141 with T17, T18, D18 after scoring two maximum 180s. For this he received a prize of £102,000, going on to win the whole event. This nine-dart finish was not broadcast live, nor was Paul Lim's at the 1990 BDO World Darts Championship. The first ever live broadcast nine-dart finish was performed by Shaun Greatbatch against Steve Coote in the final of the Dutch Open on 3 February 2002, while Phil Taylor achieved the first live nine-darter broadcast on British television during the 2002 World Matchplay.
Taylor has achieved the feat more than any other darts player on television, having done so 11 times. His first came on 1 August 2002 during a quarter-final tie against Chris Mason at the 2002 World Matchplay in Blackpool, for which Taylor received £100,000. Despite having achieved the feat a record 11 times, Taylor never hit a nine-darter in the World Championship, missing a chance on the outside wire of double 12 in his last match in the 2018 Final.
The youngest player to throw a televised nine-darter is Luke Littler, who hit the perfect leg in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Bahrain Darts Masters. The match was broadcast live on ITV4 in the UK. Littler was old at the time.
The 2007 International Darts League became the first televised tournament to witness two nine-darters when Phil Taylor's nine-dart finish against Raymond van Barneveld was matched the following day by another one from Tony O'Shea against Adrian Lewis. In the second round of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton, James Wade hit his first televised nine-dart-finish against Gary Anderson. The event was shown live on ITV4, making it the first time a nine-darter had been seen live on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom. Mervyn King hit his first televised nine-dart finish in the 2009 South African Masters in September 2009 against Wade, becoming the first player do so outside of Europe.
On 24 May 2010, in the Premier League final against Wade, Taylor made history by being the first player to ever hit two nine-dart finishes in a single match. These were his seventh and eighth nine-dart finishes. On 10 February 2017, Michael van Gerwen became the second player to hit two nine-dart finishes in a match, in a 2017 UK Open qualification event against Ryan Murray.
Brendan Dolan was the first player ever to hit a nine-darter in a double-in double-out game, doing so in the semi-final of the 2011 World Grand Prix against James Wade on 8 October. He opened with double 20, before hitting successive treble 20s (160, 180) and then finished on 161 with T20, T17 and a bullseye. He later changed his nickname to "The History Maker" to reflect his feat. In October 2014 at the World Grand Prix, Wade and his opponent Robert Thornton became the first players to both hit a nine-darter in the same match. Wade is the only player to have hit a 'standard' nine-darter and a double-in double-out nine-darter in televised matches.
William Borland hit a nine-darter at the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship in his first-round matchup in the last leg of the match to become the first person to win a match on TV in the PDC by hitting a nine-darter. On 17 February 2022, Gerwyn Price achieved two nine-dart finishes on the same day, doing so in two separate matches during night 3 of the 2022 Premier League Darts during a win against Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final, and then against James Wade in the final. In total, Price achieved four nine-dart finishes in 2022; no player had previously managed more than two.
In the semi-final of the 2025 World Matchplay, Luke Littler won the first televised PDC leg where every dart was perfect. Both Littler and his opponent Josh Rock had opened the leg with two 180s each before Littler, who had thrown first, completed the nine-darter. However, this was not the first recorded instance of a leg where all 15 darts of the leg were perfect — it had previously occurred in a match between Niko Springer and Manfred Bilderl at the .
Even with two versions of the World Championship in operation, Lim's achievement was not repeated for nearly 19 years until 2 January 2009, when Raymond van Barneveld became the second person to achieve the feat and the first since the split in darts. The finish came against Jelle Klaasen in the quarter-final of the 2009 World Championship at Alexandra Palace, and he claimed a £20,000 bonus prize. On 28 December 2009 he repeated the feat at the 2010 World Championship during his second round clash with Brendan Dolan.
Adrian Lewis achieved a nine-dart finish in the third leg of the 2011 World Championship final against Gary Anderson. On 23 December 2012 at the 2013 World Championship, Dean Winstanley hit a nine-dart finish in the third leg of the third set in his second round defeat to Vincent van der Voort. Another nine-dart finish at this Championship was achieved by Michael van Gerwen in his semi-final victory over James Wade in the third leg of the fifth set. The leg after the nine-darter (the fourth leg of the fifth set) van Gerwen hit another eight perfect darts but missed the last dart at the double to achieve consecutive nine-dart finishes.
On 14 December 2013 at the 2014 World Championship, Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson both hit nine-darters in their first round losses against Per Laursen and Ian White, respectively. On 30 December 2014 in the third round of the 2015 World Championship, Adrian Lewis hit his second World Championship nine-dart finish and his third overall, though he lost the match 3–4 to Van Barneveld. On 2 January 2016 in the semi-finals of the 2016 World Championship, Gary Anderson hit a nine-dart finish to defeat Klaasen 6–0 to reach his third World Championship final.
On 17 December 2021, during the first round of the 2022 World Championship, William Borland hit a nine-dart finish to defeat Bradley Brooks 3–2 in a last leg decider to reach the second round, becoming the first player in PDC history to win a televised match with a nine-dart finish. He described it as "the best night of my life". The following day, Darius Labanauskas achieved the feat during a 3–1 loss to Mike De Decker. In the quarter-final, defending champion Gerwyn Price hit the third of the tournament in a loss to Michael Smith.
On 3 January 2023, in the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship Final, Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen both had three darts left to achieve a nine-dart finish in the same leg, later dubbed "the greatest leg in the history of darts". After van Gerwen missed on his ninth dart, Smith checked out 141, becoming the first player to register a nine-dart finish in the same leg that an opponent had missed-out by one dart. He thus became the second player to hit a 'nine-darter' in the final of the event. After Smith successfully completed his finish, popular commentator Wayne Mardle famously said 'I can't speak! I can't speak'.
On 18 December 2024, during the first round of the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, Christian Kist hit a nine-dart finish to win the opening set of his match with Madars Razma, the first nine-darter at the World Championship since Michael Smith's famous leg. Kist went on to lose 3–1 to Razma. Kist earned a £60,000 bonus from tournament sponsor Paddy Power for achieving the feat. Damon Heta achieved the second nine-dart finish of the tournament in his third round loss to Luke Woodhouse.
As of 31 January 2026
| 1 !scope="row" | Phil Taylor | 11 | 2015 |
| 2 !scope="row" | Michael van Gerwen | 10 | 2023 |
| 3 ! scope="row" | Gerwyn Price | 7 | 2025 |
| 4 !scope="row" | Raymond van Barneveld | 5 | 2010 |
| 6 !scope="row" | James Wade | 4 | 2022 |
| 8 !scope="row" | Gary Anderson | 3 | 2018 |
| 13 ! style="border-top:1px solid silver" scope="row" | Mervyn King | 2 | 2010 |
| Premier League Darts | 21 | PDC | Gerwyn Price (5), Phil Taylor (3), Raymond van Barneveld (2), Adrian Lewis (2), Luke Littler (2), Simon Whitlock, Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Jonny Clayton, José de Sousa, Luke Humphries, Rob Cross | 2025 | |
| PDC World Darts Championship | 16 | PDC | Raymond van Barneveld (2), Adrian Lewis (2), Dean Winstanley, Michael van Gerwen, Terry Jenkins, Kyle Anderson, Gary Anderson, James Wade, William Borland, Darius Labanauskas, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Christian Kist, Damon Heta | 2025 | |
| UK Open | 11 | PDC | Phil Taylor (4), Michael van Gerwen (2), Mervyn King, Gary Anderson, Jonny Clayton, James Wade, Michael Smith | 2022 | |
| PDC World Matchplay | 10 | PDC | Phil Taylor (2), Raymond van Barneveld, John Part, Michael van Gerwen, Wes Newton, Gary Anderson, Gerwyn Price, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Luke Littler | 2025 | |
| MODUS Super Series | 8 | ADC | Conor Heneghan (2), Steve West, Darryl Pilgrim, Fallon Sherrock, Sebastian Białecki, Leonard Gates, Andreas Harrysson | 2024 | |
| Grand Slam of Darts | 7 | PDC | James Wade, Kim Huybrechts, Dave Chisnall, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Josh Rock, Ryan Searle, Luke Humphries | 2025 | |
| Online Darts Live League | 6 | ADC | Martin Adams (2), Richie Burnett, Colin Osborne, Conor Heneghan, Graham Usher | 2022 | |
| European Championship | 4 | PDC | Adrian Lewis, Michael van Gerwen, Kyle Anderson, José de Sousa | 2020 | |
| Players Championship Finals | 4 | PDC | Michael van Gerwen (3), Alan Norris | 2023 | |
| World Grand Prix | 3 | PDC | Brendan Dolan, James Wade, Robert Thornton | 2014 | |
| International Darts League | 2 | BDO | Phil Taylor, Tony O'Shea | 2007 | |
| Dutch Open | 2 | BDO | Shaun Greatbatch, Darryl Fitton | 2015 | |
| PDC World Masters | 2 | PDC | Dimitri van den Bergh, Luke Humphries | 2026 | |
| MFI World Matchplay | 1 | BDO | John Lowe | 1984 | |
| BDO World Darts Championship | 1 | BDO | Paul Lim | 1990 | |
| Masters of Darts | 1 | PDC BDO | Michael van Gerwen | 2007 | |
| World Masters | 1 | BDO | John Walton | 2007 | |
| South African Masters | 1 | PDC | Mervyn King | 2009 | |
| Zuiderduin Masters | 1 | BDO | Darryl Fitton | 2009 | |
| Sydney Darts Masters | 1 | PDC | Phil Taylor | 2015 | |
| World Series of Darts Finals | 1 | PDC | Michael van Gerwen | 2023 | |
| Bahrain Darts Masters | 1 | PDC | Luke Littler | 2024 |
In 2019, a special prize of £100,000 was available to any player who hit two nine-dart finishes at the PDC World Championship, a feat which has as of December 2024 never been achieved at any World Championship. From 2019 to 2024 prize money for nine-dart finishes were withdrawn, owing to the ever increasing prize fund for tournaments.
Prior to the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, title sponsors Paddy Power announced that they would be giving out a total of £180,000 for every nine-dart finish hit in the tournament, with the player, a spectator in the crowd and Prostate Cancer UK receiving £60,000 each. This campaign remained in place for the 2026 event.
Claire Stainsby and Glen Durrant made history when they recorded the first ever nine-dart finish in mixed pairs competition at the 2013 BDO International Open in Brean, Somerset. Durrant opened up with a 177, and then Stainsby followed that up with a 180 to leave Durrant on 144, which he ended up taking out for the first nine-dart finish in mixed pairs competition. As a result, Claire Stainsby was inducted into the BDO 9-Dart Club, thus becoming the first and so far only female to be inducted.
15-year-old Beau Greaves hit a nine-darter in a competition at Balby Bridge on 17 April 2019.
In 2023, during her 5–3 victory over Marco Verhofstad, Fallon Sherrock became the first woman to hit a nine-darter at a PDC event. Later, on 25 August 2023, Sherrock became the first woman to hit a televised 9 darter, during the Modus Super Series: Online Darts Live League.
Ten-time World Champion Trina Gulliver revealed she has twice missed her last dart to record a nine-dart finish. One was a double 18 for $100,000 at an event in Canada and another missed double was for a car at an event in Ireland.
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