Josh Rock is confident that he and his fellow darts prodigy, Luke Littler, will be among the very best in the world in the coming years. Rock, who was widely regarded as one of the sport’s brightest young talents in 2022, has seen Littler, his stablemate at Target Darts, take the spotlight with his incredible achievements. Littler won his first PDC World Darts Championship title earlier this month at just 17 years old, a year after making it to the final but losing to Luke Humphries.
While Littler has grabbed attention with his meteoric rise, Rock, now 23, continues to be a force in the sport. He was tipped as the next big star in darts when he became the PDC Youth World Champion in 2022. Rock also won multiple Players Championship events, and in 2024, he marked the peak of his career by securing victory at the Dutch Darts Championship on the European Tour.
“I had a solid 2024, but honestly, I think 2025 is going to be my year,” Rock said in an interview with BBC Sport ahead of this week’s Winmau World Masters in Milton Keynes. He also praised Littler’s achievements, noting how his success shows that darts is becoming a sport dominated by younger players. “It is fantastic for the sport – Luke winning the Worlds at such a young age shows it is a young man’s sport now.”
Though Rock’s career has been promising, he has yet to make a significant impact at major televised tournaments. His best result to date came in 2023 when he reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam of Darts. “My game is there to challenge, it always has been, it just has to come out when it needs to,” he explained. Rock remains confident in his abilities and believes the future is bright for him and Littler. “I 100 per cent believe it. There is six years between me and Luke. We can have a very long career, and I believe that me and him will dominate the sport.”
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Rock is set to face Jermaine Wattimena on Thursday night in the opening round of the Winmau World Masters, now under the PDC banner for the first time. Should he win, a potential second-round clash with world number one Luke Humphries or Joe Cullen awaits him. With his confidence and determination, Rock is aiming to make a statement in this tournament and continue his rise to the top of the darts world.
