This article is about the current baseball world championship. For the tournament before 2013, see Baseball World Cup.
World Baseball Classic
Upcoming season or competition: 2026 World Baseball Classic
Sport
Baseball
Founded
2005; 20 years ago[1]
First season
2006
Administrator
WBCI
WBSC
No. of teams
24 in Tournament 16 in Qualification
Country
WBSC member
Region
Worldwide
Most recent champion(s)
Japan (2023)
Most titles
Japan (3 titles)
Official website
WBCI.com
WBSC Championship
Amateur World Series
1938
1939
1940
1941
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Baseball World Cup
1988
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2011
World Baseball Classic
2013
2017
2023
2026
v
t
e
The World Baseball Classic (WBC), also referred to as the Classic,[2] is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC),[a] the sport's global governing body, and organized in partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB). The winning team is awarded the World Baseball Classic Championship Trophy.[3][4] It is one of the two main senior baseball tournaments sanctioned by the WBSC, alongside the WBSC Premier12, but is the only one to grant the winner the title of "world champion".[5][6]
The tournament, proposed in 2005 by MLB and its Players Association, was first held in 2006 as an invitational event. It previously coexisted with Olympic baseball (until 2008) and the Baseball World Cup (until 2011) as tournaments sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, the predecessor to the WBSC.[7] The Baseball World Cup was discontinued after the 2011 edition, when the WBSC accepted an MLB suggestion to make the WBC the officially-sanctioned world championship, on the condition that the Classic should have direct qualifications and follow international anti-doping rules.[8]
After a three-year gap between the first two installments of the tournament, plans were made for the World Baseball Classic to be repeated every four years following the 2009 event. The third installment of the Classic was held in 2013, and the fourth was held in 2017. The World Baseball Classic was held five times from 2006 to 2023, with Japan, the Dominican Republic, and the United States winning the championship. Japan, as of the 2023 tournament, is the only team to win the tournament multiple times.
The tournament is the first of its kind to have national teams featuring professional players from the top-level major leagues around the world, including Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In addition to providing a format for the best baseball players in the world to compete against one another while representing their home countries, the World Baseball Classic was created in order to further promote the game around the globe. After the 2023 World Baseball Classic, the tournament has become one of the world's most viewed baseball events.[9]
^as of 2026 Tournament
^Baseball Zen: The Classic! See the World Baseball Classic through a Baseball Zen lens
^"Japan 2023 World Baseball Classic Championship Trophy Pano Framed LE #1". auctions.mlb.com. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
^Suvanto, Lyndon. "World Baseball Classic Trophy unveiled, how does it compare to past designs?". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
^"IBAF introduces new Format of International Tournaments". IBAF.org. International Baseball Federation. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
^"Japan win World Baseball Classic to add to Premier12 and Olympic titles". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
^"IBAF World Ranking Notes" (PDF). International Baseball Federation. January 13, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 9, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
^"Premier12 2019 Official Program – Page 6" (PDF). WBSC. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
^"USA-Japan WBC Title Game Could Be the Most-Watched Baseball Game in History". nbcboston.com. March 21, 2023.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
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Global Information
2026 World Baseball Classic
Japan (2023)