| Current season, competition or edition: | |
| Formerly | World Junior Baseball Championship (1981 - 2010) 18U Baseball World Championship (2012) 18U Baseball World Cup (2013) |
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Founded | 1981 |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Continent | International |
| Most recent champion | |
| Most titles | (11 titles each) |
| Official website | 2025 WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup |
TheU-18 Baseball World Cup is the 18-and-under baseball world championship sanctioned by theInternational Baseball Federation (IBAF) and its successor, theWorld Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and was first held in 1981 in the United States. Because it is a world championship, the results of the U-18 Baseball World Cup affect theWBSC World Rankings.[1]
Several players who have participated in the U-18 Baseball World Cup have gone on to stardom at the professional level, including Japan'sYu Darvish, USA'sClayton Kershaw,Francisco Lindor andBuster Posey, and Cuba'sYasiel Puig andAroldis Chapman, among many others.
Prior to 2010, the IBAF organized theWorld Junior Baseball Championship. The WBSC was created in 2013 when the IBAF merged with the International Softball Federation.
| 18U Baseball World Championship | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Final Host | Medalists | ||||
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | ||||
| 2012 Details | Seoul | United States | Canada | Chinese Taipei | ||
| 18U Baseball World Cup | ||||||
| 2013 Details | Taichung | United States | Japan | Cuba | ||
| U-18 Baseball World Cup | ||||||
| 2015 Details | Osaka | United States | Japan | South Korea | ||
| 2017 Details | Thunder Bay | United States | South Korea | Japan | ||
| 2019 Details | Gijang | Chinese Taipei | United States | South Korea | ||
| 2022 Details[R 1] | Sarasota &Bradenton, FL | United States | Chinese Taipei | Japan | ||
| 2023 Details | Taipei &Taichung | Japan | Chinese Taipei | South Korea | ||
| 2025 Details | Naha &Itoman | United States | Japan | Chinese Taipei | ||
| 2027 Details | Pingtan | |||||
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 11 | 12 | 5 | 28 |
| 2 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 18 | |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 10 | |
| 4 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 21 | |
| 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 | |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | |
| 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Totals (7 entries) | 32 | 32 | 32 | 96 | |
1Chinese Taipei is the officialWBSC designation for the team representing the state officially referred to as theRepublic of China, more commonly known asTaiwan. (See alsopolitical status of Taiwan for details.)