WBSC World Rankings

Top 20 rankings
Men's Baseball as of 31 December 2024[1]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  Japan 6911
2 Steady  Chinese Taipei 5558
3 Steady  Venezuela 4877
4 Steady  Mexico 4769
5 Steady  United States 4751
6 Steady  South Korea 4539
7 Steady  Netherlands 3949
8 Steady  Panama 3439
9 Steady  Puerto Rico 3375
10 Steady  Cuba 3146
11 Steady  Dominican Republic 2800
12 Steady  Australia 2542
13 Steady  Colombia 2457
14 Steady  Italy 2214
15 Steady  Czech Republic 2030
16 Steady  Nicaragua 1854
17 Steady  Germany 1399
18 Steady  Great Britain 1326
19 Steady  Israel 1121
20 Steady  China 937
*Change from 27 November 2024
Women's Softball as of 31 December 2024[2]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  United States 5106
2 Steady  Japan 3965
3 Steady  Puerto Rico 3441
4 Steady  Chinese Taipei 2800
5 Increase 1  Netherlands 2739
6 Decrease 1  Canada 2685
7 Steady  Italy 2505
8 Increase 2  Czech Republic 2174
9 Decrease 1  Mexico 1967
10 Decrease 1  Australia 1791
11 Increase 3  Great Britain 1535
12 Decrease 1  China 1420
13 Steady  Spain 1401
14 Increase 4  Israel 1046
15 Increase 4  Germany 646
16 Increase 7  Peru 994
17 Decrease 5  Cuba 972
18 Increase 2  France 968
19 Decrease 3  Philippines 965
20 Decrease 3  Venezuela 851
*Change from 23 July 2024

The WBSC World Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in baseball, softball, and baseball5. The teams of the member nations of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the world governing body for both sports, are ranked based on their tournament results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of WBSC-recognized international tournaments. Under the existing system, rankings are based on a team's performance over the last four years, with major international tournaments awarded a higher weighting compared to minor international and continental tournaments.

Five rankings are published by the WBSC, they are: Men's Baseball, Women's Baseball, Women's Softball, Men's Softball, and Baseball5 (co-ed).[3]

History

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In January 2009, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) first published a listing in rank order of its member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams. Though primarily focused on the respective men's senior teams of member nations, the current ranks also include points awarded based on results at the IBAF 'AAA' (Under 18) Junior and 'AA' (Under 16) Youth Championships held during the tracking period. As a result from the merger with softball in 2013, the WBSC is also responsible for ranking international men's and women's softball teams.[4] Beginning in 2015, the rankings also determine which 12 teams participate in the WBSC Premier12 tournament.

In 2025, the WBSC will start a new ranking methodology. Only the most recent edition of any event will be included in the rankings, and teams will keep the ranking points from any event for four years.[5]

Men's

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Baseball

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Men's ranking leaders

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WBSC World Men's Ranking Leaders
Teams ranking in the top five
Date First Second Third Fourth Fifth
31 December 2012  Cuba  United States  Japan  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
31 December 2014  Japan  United States  Cuba  Chinese Taipei  Netherlands
31 December 2016  Japan  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei  Cuba
25 September 2018  United States  Japan  South Korea  Cuba  Chinese Taipei
17 December 2018  Japan  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei  Cuba
31 December 2019  Japan  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei  Mexico
18 March 2020  Japan  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei  Mexico
28 June 2021  Japan  Chinese Taipei  South Korea  United States  Mexico
11 August 2021  Japan  South Korea  Chinese Taipei  United States  Mexico
31 December 2021  Japan  Chinese Taipei  South Korea  Mexico  United States
31 December 2022  Japan  Chinese Taipei  United States  South Korea  Mexico
28 March 2023  Japan  United States  Mexico  Chinese Taipei  South Korea
15 August 2023  Japan  United States  Mexico  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
5 October 2023  Japan  United States  Mexico  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
2 November 2023  Japan  Mexico  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
18 December 2023  Japan  Mexico  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
31 December 2023  Japan  Mexico  United States  South Korea  Chinese Taipei
9 March 2024  Japan  Mexico  Chinese Taipei  United States  Venezuela
18 September 2024  Japan  Mexico  Chinese Taipei  Venezuela  United States
27 November 2024  Japan  Chinese Taipei  Venezuela  Mexico  United States

The November 2023 rankings included 80.[6] This increased to 84 at the end of 2024.[7]

Best Movers

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Top five movers per ranking
Date First Second Third Fourth Fifth
31 December 2014  Israel  Curaçao  Iran  Slovenia  Austria
31 December 2016  Guatemala  Slovakia  Sweden  Poland  Lithuania
25 September 2018  Israel  Indonesia  El Salvador  Sri Lanka  Honduras
17 December 2018  Curaçao  U.S. Virgin Islands  Aruba  South Africa  Venezuela
31 December 2019  American Samoa  Guam  Greece  Great Britain  Spain
18 March 2020  Guam  El Salvador  New Zealand  Honduras  Peru
28 June 2021   Switzerland  Honduras  Indonesia  Aruba  Nigeria
11 August 2021  Slovenia  Ireland  Croatia  Uganda  American Samoa
31 December 2021  Sweden  Hungary  Croatia  Great Britain  Venezuela
31 December 2022  Northern Mariana Islands  Bahamas  Curaçao  Bulgaria  Palau
28 March 2023  Costa Rica  Bangladesh  Honduras  China  Kenya
15 August 2023  Palestine  Ecuador  Indonesia  Norway  Afghanistan
5 October 2023   Switzerland  Greece  Sweden  Croatia  Ukraine
2 November 2023  Panama  Colombia  South Africa  Laos  El Salvador
18 December 2023  Pakistan  Palestine  Hong Kong  Costa Rica  Philippines
31 December 2023  Norway  Finland —
9 March 2024  Bahamas  Poland  Serbia  Romania Tied[a]
18 September 2024  El Salvador Tied[b]  Venezuela  United States
27 November 2024  U.S. Virgin Islands  Chile  Singapore Tied[c]
  1. ^  Ireland,  Slovenia,  Norway
  2. ^  Sri Lanka and  Costa Rica
  3. ^  Curaçao and  Australia

Softball

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Top 20 Rankings as of 26 April 2023[8]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  Argentina 4224
2 Increase 2  Australia 3551
3 Steady  Japan 3451
4 Decrease 2  Canada 3358
5 Steady  United States 2655
6 Steady  Czech Republic 2526
7 Steady  New Zealand 2280
8 Steady  Venezuela 2133
9 Steady  Cuba 1807
10 Steady  Mexico 1775
11 Steady  Denmark 1069
12 Increase 2  Singapore 994
13 Steady  Guatemala 934
14 Decrease 2  South Africa 894
15 Steady  Philippines 623
16 Steady  Netherlands 412
17 Increase 4  Israel 339
18 Decrease 1  Botswana 253
19 Decrease 1  Dominican Republic 221
20 Decrease 1  Chinese Taipei 192
*Change from 31 December 2022

Women's

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Softball

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Women's ranking leaders

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WBSC World Women's Ranking Leaders
Teams ranking in the top five
Date First Second Third Fourth Fifth
31 December 2016  Japan  United States  Canada  Australia  New Zealand
17 December 2018  United States  Japan  Canada  Puerto Rico  Mexico
31 December 2019  United States  Japan  Canada  Puerto Rico  Mexico
1 January 2020  United States  Japan  Canada  Puerto Rico  Mexico
28 June 2021  United States  Japan  Canada  Puerto Rico  Mexico
11 August 2021  Japan  United States  Canada  Mexico  Puerto Rico
31 December 2021  United States  Japan  Canada  Mexico  Puerto Rico
31 December 2022  United States  Japan  Chinese Taipei  Canada  Puerto Rico
12 April 2023  United States  Japan  Chinese Taipei  Puerto Rico  Canada
31 July 2023  United States  Japan  Puerto Rico  Canada  Chinese Taipei
10 November 2023  United States  Japan  Puerto Rico  Chinese Taipei  Canada
31 December 2023  United States  Japan  Puerto Rico  Chinese Taipei  Canada
30 March 2024  United States  Puerto Rico  Japan  Chinese Taipei  Canada
23 July 2024  United States  Japan  Puerto Rico  Chinese Taipei  Canada
11 September 2024  United States  Japan  Puerto Rico  Chinese Taipei  Netherlands

The WBSC ranked 65 countries in softball in 2024.[9]

Best Movers

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Top five movers per ranking
Date First Second Third Fourth Fifth
17 December 2018  South Africa  Ireland  India  Mexico  Dominican Republic
31 December 2019  Belgium  Germany  Poland  Spain  Ireland
28 June 2021  Croatia  Germany  Slovakia  Spain  Russia
11 August 2021  Cuba  Indonesia  Hong Kong  Botswana  Curaçao
31 December 2021  Denmark  Peru  Belgium  Slovakia  Sweden
31 December 2022  Argentina  El Salvador  Slovakia  Greece  Israel
12 April 2023  Singapore  Philippines  South Korea  Thailand  Botswana
31 July 2023  Cuba  Curaçao  Botswana  Venezuela  South Africa
10 November 2023  Philippines  Singapore  Hong Kong  Belgium  Hungary
31 December 2023  Dominican Republic  Colombia  Guatemala  Chile  Ecuador
31 December 2024  Sweden   Switzerland  Belgium  Colombia  Greece

Baseball

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Top 20 Rankings as of 31 December 2024[10]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  Japan 1405
2 Steady  United States 918
3 Increase 4  Canada 755
5 Decrease 3  Chinese Taipei 744
6 Decrease 1  Mexico 741
7 Decrease 1  Puerto Rico 490
8 Increase 4  Hong Kong 377
9 Steady  Cuba 350
10 Steady  South Korea 313
11 Steady  Australia 264
12 Steady  France 180
13 Steady  Philippines 172
14 Steady  China 151
15 Steady  India 130
16 Steady  Indonesia 109
17 Steady  Pakistan 94
18 Decrease 12  Dominican Republic 72
19 Steady  Thailand 68
20 Steady  Czech Republic 56
*Change from 31 December 2023

In the wake of the International Olympic Committee's decision to cut baseball from the 2012 Olympics program, the IBAF pushed the growth of women's baseball as to include a women's component in its bid for a reinstatement of the sport in future Olympics. The effort to unify the sports resulted in the merger of the IBAF with the International Softball Federation in 2013 to create the WBSC.[11]

The initial women's baseball rankings were based upon results from past Women's Baseball World Cups. While the calculations of the women's rankings are similar to that of the men's, one main difference is that they are inclusive of the three most recent IBAF Women's Baseball World Cups whereas the men's rankings only include the last two. Points are weighted in favor of the more recent results.[12]

Coed

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Baseball5

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Baseball5 is a mixed-gender sport, with each team of 5 active players having at least 2 players of either gender.

Top 20 Rankings as of 9 August 2024[13]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  Chinese Taipei 3306
2 Increase 1  Cuba 2947
3 Decrease 1  Tunisia 2535
4 Steady  France 2390
5 Steady  Japan 2322
6 Steady  South Africa 1929
7 Increase 1  Mexico 1896
8 Decrease 1  South Korea 1811
9 Steady  China 1476
10 Steady  Lithuania 1342
11 Steady  Ghana 1222
12 Steady  Turkey 1144
13 Increase 2  Venezuela 1127
14 Decrease 1  Malaysia 1056
15 Decrease 1  Kenya 1046
16 Steady  Zambia 798
17 Steady  Hong Kong 778
18 Steady  Netherlands 723
19 Steady  Belgium 716
20 Steady  Italy 702
*Change from 16 May 2024

Calculation method

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Men's baseball

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Points are awarded in the men's baseball rankings according to finishes in the Premier12, World Baseball Classic, U-23 Baseball World Cup, U-18 Baseball World Cup, U-15 Baseball World Cup and U-12 Baseball World Cup as follows.[14]

Premier 12

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Points 1380 1102 1004 906 808 710 612 514 416 318 220 122

World Baseball Classic

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Points 1150 940 880 820 760 700 640 580 520 460 400 340 280 220 160 100

U-23 Baseball World Cup

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Points 690 551 502 453 404 355 306 257 208 159 110 61

U-18 Baseball World Cup

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Points 575 459 418 377 336 295 254 213 172 131 90 49

U-15 Baseball World Cup

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Points 460 367 334 301 268 235 202 169 136 103 70 37

U-12 Baseball World Cup

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Final rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Points 345 275 250 225 200 175 150 125 100 75 50 25

Controversies

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Criticism of the WBSC World Ranking focus on how the rankings are calculated and how each countries' strengths are often misrepresented.[15]

The current system strongly favors the winners of the WBSC Premier12, awarding 1380 points. This is greater than that of winning the World Baseball Classic, which awards just 1150 points. This practice has led to some controversies, as players on the active roster for the Major League Baseball, arguably world's best players, do not participate in the former competition.[16] This in turn causes the WBSC ranking to be disproportionately unfavorable to countries with more players in the MLB, such as the United States or the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic, despite winning the 2013 WBC, have never been in the top 5 rankings, despite having the second most active players in the MLB, just behind the U.S.[citation needed]

Additionally, the current rankings system take junior competitions, such as the U-12 Baseball World Cup and the likes of them, into account under the same ranking hierarchy. [17] Critics argue that this practice alters the rankings to misrepresent how well the senior men's team perform by including irrelevant competitions within the ranking.

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^ "The WBSC World Ranking". WBSC. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  2. ^ "The WBSC Women's World Ranking". WBSC. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  3. ^ "WBSC launches first-ever Baseball5 World Rankings". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
  4. ^ "WBSC launches first-ever Softball World Rankings: Japan Women's No. 1, New Zealand Men's No. 1". Mister Baseball. March 22, 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  5. ^ "New WBSC World Ranking methodology starts in 2025". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  6. ^ "Record 86 nations featured in March 2020 WBSC Baseball World Rankings". wbsc.org. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Japan confirmed as WBSC/KONAMI Men's Baseball World Ranking No. 1 at end of 2024". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  8. ^ "The WBSC Men's Softball World Ranking". WBSC. 26 April 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  9. ^ "WBSC/KONAMI Women's Softball World Ranking: Netherlands gain most points, Sweden make biggest leap as USA stay No. 1 in 2024". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  10. ^ "The WBSC Women's Baseball World Ranking". WBSC. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  11. ^ "ABOUT THE WORLD BASEBALL SOFTBALL CONFEDERATION". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  12. ^ "IBAF Releases First-Ever Women's World Rankings". International Baseball Federation. 13 August 2009. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  13. ^ "The WBSC Baseball5 World Ranking". WBSC. 9 August 2024. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  14. ^ "WBSC Rankings - Baseball Men's". rankings.wbsc.org. WBSC. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  15. ^ Jaehyeong, Roh. "세계랭킹 5위의 허상과 WBC서 드러난 한국야구의 민낯" [The illusion of world No. 5 and the shamelessness of Korean baseball revealed at the WBC].
  16. ^ May, Jeffrey (2024-11-08). "Why are MLB players not playing in the WBSC Premier12 2024?". AS USA. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
  17. ^ "プレミア１２が変えた世界ランキング…６位の韓国、台湾との差さらに広がる（ハンギョレ新聞）". Yahoo!ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-01-23.
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