Luke Littler posts direct message from world champion Luke Humphries on his Instagram story, he's a class act

Luke Littler has encouraged his fans to follow Luke Humphries after the pair shared a wholesome conversation over Instagram DM's.

It is almost a week since Littler suffered a heartbreaking 7-4 defeat to world number one Humphries in the PDC World Darts Championship final.

The 16-year-old still walked away with a life-changing £200,000 after beating Christian Kist, Andrew Gilding, Matt Campbell, Raymond van Barneveld, Brendan Dolan and Rob Cross.

And he also came away from this winter's tournament with a huge social media following.

Littler gained a total of 199,745 followers on January 3, which made him the most followed darts players on the platform, and now boasts a following of over a million.

As he continues to increase his presence on social media, Littler wants to lend a helping hand to others, including the man who defeated him on the Ally Pally stage.

Taking to his Instagram story on Tuesday, the Runcorn-born thrower wrote: "Come on everybody give you the world champ some followers."

Littler would also post a screenshot of his conversation with Humphries, who responded to his recent one million follower announcement.

Humphries wrote: "Bro you need to tell some of them to follow me. That's mad. Congratulations man."

With an engagement rate of 13%, Littler has the potential to earn up to £2,000 for each sponsored post on his Instagram account, according to CasinoAlpha.

Littler showed maturity beyond his years after the final, when he was asked to give his response to losing against Humphries.

"It’s been unbelievable, I just wanted to win one game and come back after Christmas, that was the only goal I set, so this is a massive bonus," he said.

"No one likes losing, I have not really lost much, so to lose on that stage I can’t really be angry, the only thing I am angry about is that I lost a lot of legs on my throw, and I was just chasing Luke.

"I have won six games here so why can’t I go and win seven here in years to come? I have gained a lot of experience and stage experience, I am in the top 32 now so I could be in everything."

Littler added: "The past three to four weeks have been unbelievable, and now I just can’t wait to go home. I'm sorry I couldn’t give the crowd what they wanted."