World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (abbreviated as WBC, or sometimes, The Classic) is an international baseball tournament, sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) through the World Baseball Classic Inc. The winning team is awarded the World Baseball Classic Championship Trophy. After 2023 World Baseball Classic, this tournament has become the most popular baseball competition in the world, overtaking the World Series
| Upcoming season or competition: 2026 World Baseball Classic | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Inaugural season | 2006 |
| Administrator | |
| No. of teams | 24 (from 2026) |
| Region | Worldwide |
| Most recent champion(s) | Japan (2023) |
| Most titles | Japan (3 titles) |
| TV partner(s) | English MLB International ESPN (2006–2009) MLB Network (2012–) FOX (2023–) FOX Sports (2023–) French TVA Sports (2023-) Spanish Imagen Televisión (2023-) FOX Deportes (2023–) DirecTV (2023-) Chinese Bilibili (2023-) Kuaishou (2023-) Weibo (2023-) Douyin (2023-) Japanese JNN Stations (2006–) ANN Stations (2006–) J Sports (2006–) Korean Wavve (2023-) SPOTV (2023-) |
| Streaming partner(s) | Tubi (2023) |
| Official website | world-baseball-classic |
| WBSC Championship |
|---|
| Amateur World Series |
| Baseball World Cup |
| World Baseball Classic |
It was proposed to the IBAF and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world by Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). It is one of the two main senior baseball tournaments sanctioned by the WBSC, alongside the Premier 12 but the Classic is the only one which grants to the winner the title of "World Champion".
It previously coexisted with Olympic baseball (until 2008) and the Baseball World Cup (until 2011) as IBAF-sanctioned tournaments. The final men's Baseball World Cup was held in 2011, and it was discontinued in 2013, after an MLB suggestion to reorganize the international baseball calendar; WBSC accepted the suggestion after an executive meeting, giving the "World Champion" title to the WBC winner, on the condition that the Classic should have direct qualifications and follow international anti-doping rules.
It was first held in 2006 as an invitational event to which 16 countries were invited.
The tournament is the first of its kind to have national teams featuring professional players from the major leagues around the world, including Major League Baseball. 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 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.