Current season, competition or edition: 2024 WBSC Premier12 | |
 | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 2015 |
| Founder | World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Continent | International |
| Most recent champion |  Chinese Taipei (1st title) |
| Most titles | Chinese Taipei (1 title) Japan (1 title) South Korea (1 title) |
TheWBSC Premier12 is the internationalbaseball tournament organized by theWorld Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held byTaiwan andJapan in November 2015. The second tournament,2019 WBSC Premier12, was held in November 2019, and served as aqualifier for two teams forbaseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
| WBSC Championships | |
|---|---|
| Amateur World Series | |
| Baseball World Cup | |
| WBSC Premier12 | |
| World Baseball Classic | |
| WBSC world championship since2013 | |
From 1938 to 2011, theInternational Baseball Federation (IBAF), then thegoverning body of baseball, considered theBaseball World Cup to be the sport's major world championship.[1] Following the2011 version of the event, the IBAF chose to discontinue the tournament in favor of theWorld Baseball Classic.[2]
In 2005, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that baseball andsoftball would be removed from theSummer Olympics permament program, beginning in 2012.[3] Thereafter, the IOC also officially reclassified baseball and softball as two different disciplines of the same sport.[4] In 2013, the IBAF merged with theInternational Softball Federation to create theWorld Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).[5]
In July 2014, the WBSC announced the creation of the Premier12 tournament, calling it the "new flagship men’s National Team baseball event," which would be held every four years.[6][7] It was viewed as an event to fill in the calendar in place of the Baseball World Cup, since theWorld Baseball Classic took its place and an attempt to boost baseball's bid for inclusion in the2020 Summer Olympics inTokyo.[8][9] The WBSC proposed that, if baseball did return to the Olympics for 2020, the 2019 WBSC Premier12 be used as a qualifying tournament.[10]
On 11 September 2023, the WBSC officially announced the third staging of the tournament for 2024, to be hosted in Japan, Taiwan and a venue in the Americas,[11] later chosen to be Mexico.[12] In October 2024, the WBSC announced that the tournament will expand to 16 teams beginning in 2027.[13]
With theWorld Baseball Classic acting as the biggest international baseball competition, the Premier12 is often viewed as the second or third most important tournament of the sport, behind the WBC, and, sometimes, theSummer Olympics.[14]
In terms of viewership and popularity, the tournament tends to struggle especially in North and Central American countries. This is because of the fact that a large portion of their talent pool is not permitted to play in the Premier12. As of 2024, all players active on aMajor League Baseball roster are ineligible to participate in the Premier12.[15]
However, the tournament still garners attention and media spotlight in countries inEast Asia with active domestic baseball leagues, such asJapan,South Korea, andTaiwan, reflected by their large TV viewership.[16]
When theChinese Taipei national baseball team won the tournament in 2024, street parades were held to celebrate the team’s victory, with the sitting Taiwan presidentLai Ching-te greeting the winner team.[17]
The field of the tournament consists of the 12 best national teams in the world according to the most recentWBSC World Rankings.[7]
Across three editions of the tournament, 14 teams have qualified for at least one edition, with 10 of those teams having qualified for all three events. Of all the qualified teams, the majority have been from theAmericas andAsia and none have qualified fromAfrica. At least one team fromEurope has qualified for every tournament, andOceania has had one team (Australia) qualify for the last two tournaments.
| Year | Hosts | Final | Third place game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Score | Runners-up | Third place | Score | Fourth place | ||||
| 2015 Details | Japan Taiwan | South Korea | 8–0 Tokyo Dome,Tokyo |  United States | Japan | 11–1 (F/7) Tokyo Dome,Tokyo |  Mexico | ||
| 2019 Details | JapanMexicoSouth KoreaTaiwan | Japan | 5–3 Tokyo Dome,Tokyo | South Korea | Mexico | 3–2 (F/10) Tokyo Dome,Tokyo | United States | ||
| 2024 Details | JapanMexicoTaiwan | Chinese Taipei | 4–0 Tokyo Dome,Tokyo | Japan | United States | 6–1 Tokyo Dome,Tokyo |  Venezuela | ||
| 2027 Details | |||||||||
| Team | 2015 (12) | 2019 (12) | 2024 (12) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Australia | • | QF 6th | R1 7th | 2 |
 Canada | QF 5th | R1 7th | • | 2 |
| Chinese Taipei | R1 9th | QF 5th | 1st | 3 |
 Cuba | QF 6th | R1 10th | R1 11th | 3 |
 Dominican Republic | R1 11th | R1 8th | R1 9th | 3 |
 Italy | R1 12th | • | • | 1 |
| Japan | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3 |
| Mexico | 4th | 3rd | R1 8th | 3 |
 Netherlands | R1 7th | R1 11th | R1 10th | 3 |
 Panama | • | • | R1 6th | 1 |
 Puerto Rico | QF 8th | R1 12th | R1 12th | 3 |
| South Korea | 1st | 2nd | R1 5th | 3 |
| United States | 2nd | 4th | 3rd | 3 |
| Venezuela | R1 10th | R1 9th | 4th | 3 |
| Team | 2015 (12) | 2019 (12) | 2024 (12) | Total |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | South Korea | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Chinese Taipei | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | United States | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Mexico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (5 entries) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
| Year | Player | Position | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Kim Hyun-soo | Outfielder | [18] |
| 2019 | Seiya Suzuki | Outfielder | [19] |
| 2024 | Chieh-Hsien Chen [zh] | Outfielder | [20] |
Internationalbaseball | ||
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| WBSC Events |  | |
| Minor World Events | ||
| Defunct World Events | ||
| Africa | ||
| Americas | ||
| Asia | ||
| Europe | ||
| Oceania | ||