Hughes failed to defend his previous Zuiderduin Masters finals and was knocked out of the competition in the group stage.

He was defeated 6–1 by eventual winner Scott Waites; however, reaching the semi-finals meant he automatically qualified for the 2017 tournament.

Hughes achieved his best ever World Trophy result when he reached the semi-finals, where he was defeated 11–9 by eventual winner Darryl Fitton.

In the 2017 BDO World Darts Championship Hughes reached the semi-finals for the second year in a row before being beaten 6–1 by eventual winner Glen Durrant.

In the 2018 BDO World Darts Championship Hughes lost to German debutant Michael Unterbuchner 3–2 in the first round.

[2] Hughes won a PDC Tour Card for the first time on the first day of 2019 UK Q-School, beating Kirk Shepherd 5–1 in the final.

This helped him qualify for the all the premier events at the back end of the year, achieving a 6–2 win against Jermaine Wattimena at the 2019 Players Championship Finals in the first round before losing to Rob Cross.