Luke Littler's incredible career earnings after crying following £500 win aged 12

Teenage darts sensation, Luke Littler, who once shed tears of joy after winning £500 in a local competition, has now racked up an impressive £250,000 in prize money.

His astounding rise to fame began by reaching the final at Alexandra Palace's PDC World Darts Championship, where he bagged a cool £200,000 despite losing to Luke Humphries. But that was no one-off. Littler then went on to win the Bahrain Masters, beating Michael van Gerwen in the final, and reached the final of the Dutch Masters.

He's also taken home the trophy from the Players Championship 1 event and achieved a stellar ranking of 30th in the PDC Order of Merit. His fine run of form has also seen him produce two perfect nine-dart check-outs along the way.

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Hard work and dedication have been key in Littler's journey to darting success. He was already playing on a proper dart board when he was just four and won his first local adult competitions when he was twelve, reducing him to tears. Reflecting on his thrilling journey, when asked by The Times if he had cried because of the joy of winning, Littler said: "No. Because of the 500 quid. When I first joined a team, I was the youngest there, playing against men. But that became me, week in, week out.

"Widnes was one of the big competitions - 500 quid for the winner. All the others were £150, £160, but that was the big one and they got all these entries. Everyone wanted in. All men. They don't like being beaten by a kid. Yeah [it annoyed them]. But that's OK. They shouldn't have to change their behaviour for me. And darts came from the