In the high-stakes arena of professional darts, where every throw can swing fortunes and egos, few names evoke the thunderous roar of dominance like Michael van Gerwen. The Dutch powerhouse, affectionately known as “Mighty Mike,” has long been the oche’s unyielding force—a three-time world champion whose blistering averages and unshakeable nerve have terrorized opponents for over a decade. But as autumn 2025 casts its chill over the PDC circuit, a troubling hush has fallen around the 36-year-old phenom. Once the undisputed king, van Gerwen is now grappling with a season of stumbles, personal turmoil, and a gnawing sense of vulnerability that has even his closest allies sounding the alarm. “I’m worried about his career,” confesses Vincent van der Voort, the fellow Dutch darts ace and longtime confidant, his voice laced with the weight of brotherhood on a recent podcast. “He’s really struggling with himself now.”
Van Gerwen’s 2025 has unfolded like a dartboard riddled with errant flights: flashes of brilliance overshadowed by baffling inconsistencies. Seeded third into the PDC World Darts Championship at London’s Alexandra Palace, he carved a path to the final, only to be outgunned 7-4 by teenage sensation Luke Littler in a match that echoed the torch-passing of generations. That £250,000 runner-up prize kept him afloat in the rankings, but the cracks were already spiderwebbing. In the Premier League, a grueling 16-night gauntlet that once bowed to his command, van Gerwen etched an unwanted footnote into history: not a single nightly victory. His elimination came via a 6-2 quarter-final drubbing at the hands of Nathan Aspinall in Sheffield, a defeat that sealed his absence from the O2 playoffs for just the second time in 13 years. Averaging a career-low 96.33 across the league phase, he watched as younger guns like Littler and Humphries soared, their hunger a stark mirror to his fading fire.
The ProTour, darts’ relentless engine room, has been equally unforgiving. Slumped at 36th on the one-year PDC rankings, van Gerwen has racked up five first-round exits in his last six outings—a far cry from the man who amassed 90 titles there. He skipped the Dutch Darts Championship in May after a humiliating opening-round loss at home, and even a freak neck injury from trying on a shirt forced him out of Berlin’s Premier League night. Withdrawals piled up, from Players Championship 16 to others, as the Green Machine seemed to sputter. Yet, amid the skid, a defiant spark flickered: in September, at the World Series of Darts Finals, he reclaimed a major televised crown after two barren years, dismantling Littler 11-7 in the decider. “That alone won’t save you anymore,” van der Voort cautioned post-victory, urging structural change. But the triumph feels like a lone bullseye in a sea of singles.
Off the oche, the shadows run deeper, intertwining with van Gerwen’s storied personal life to amplify the strain. In May, the darts world reeled as he announced his separation from wife Daphne after 11 years of marriage, a union that produced two children—a daughter in 2017 and a son in 2020. The split hit like a wayward dart to the heart; van Gerwen retreated to Ibiza with his kids, seeking solace in sun-soaked escapes. “I’m just human, you know,” he told Dutch media, his words raw with vulnerability. “At the end of the day, just because we as professional dart players are in the spotlight, we are first and foremost loving parents.” The home front, once his anchor, now echoes with absence: “Now, for example, the dogs are gone—it’s quiet and empty at home,” van der Voort revealed on the Darts Draait Door podcast. “You can tell he puts on a brave face in public, but behind that there’s emptiness. It’s all hitting him.”
Van der Voort, a two-time World Championship quarter-finalist who stepped away from the tour card grind, pulls no punches in dissecting his friend’s plight. Speaking candidly, he paints a portrait of a man adrift: “Next year is huge. He has to defend everything.” With the PDC Order of Merit resetting post-2024 Worlds, van Gerwen faces a brutal purge—£250,000 from his 2025 Worlds final run, plus the 2024 World Matchplay runner-up spoils, all vanishing by early 2027. His absences have already cost him a historic first: missing the £600,000 Players Championship Finals in Minehead this November, the top 64 showdown he’s never sat out. “I understand what’s happening at home… it’s all hitting him,” van der Voort empathizes, but the concern sharpens: “Because he’s doing all these other things, people think, ‘Oh, there he goes again, skipping darts for something else.’ I believe he’s genuinely struggling, but it comes across oddly.” Critics whisper of lost appetite, a dimmed work ethic, even twilight years—echoed by pundit Colin Lloyd, who lamented the erosion of van Gerwen’s “fear factor.”
Yet, Mighty Mike remains a fighter, his trademark bravado unbowed. Brushing off the naysayers in May, he declared, “I’ve been working and practising a lot. Of course, it doesn’t always pay out, but I’m doing the work.” He scoffs at the notion of decline: “I’m a human being as well and I know I’m capable of it… I’ll never give up. I’ll fight for everything. I know it’s still there. You don’t lose talent like that.” Technique tweaks—a new set of darts to “get my mind off things”—signal his resolve, even if results lag. Van der Voort nods to the generational shift: “You see in those young guys that they are working every day, hungry.” Littler, Humphries, Aspinall—they’re the new wolves at the door, their daily grind a blueprint van Gerwen must reclaim. “His throw is not smooth. It was really work,” notes darts analyst Damian Vlottes. “And as long as he doesn’t keep practicing structurally, I don’t see him coming back to his old level.”
As the 2025-26 season looms, with the Grand Slam of Darts beckoning and a Worlds defense in January, van Gerwen stands at a crossroads. A holiday in Dubai caps his ProTour push, but the real battle is internal—a quest to silence the doubts, mend the fractures at home, and rediscover the predator’s edge that won him 166 professional titles. For a man who’s stared down legends and rewritten records, this slump is but a leg in a marathon. Van der Voort’s plea hangs heavy: “Don’t be jealous of him, get out there and do it yourself.” No—the worry is for the giant himself. Can Mighty Mike summon one more roar, or will the oche claim another fallen titan? In darts, as in life, the board resets with every throw. For van Gerwen, the next dart could be his lifeline.
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