| Sport: | Baseball |
| WBSC Premier12 | |
| Pixels: | 250px |
| Founded: | November 2015 |
| Founder: | World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) |
| Teams: | 12 |
| Continent: | International |
| Champions: | (1st title) |
| Most Champs: | (1 title) (1 title) |
| Current Season: | 2024 WBSC Premier12 |
The WBSC Premier12 is the international baseball tournament organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held by Taiwan and Japan in November 2015. The second tournament, 2019 WBSC Premier12, was held in November 2019, and served as a qualifier for two teams for baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
From 1938 to 2011, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), then the governing body of baseball, considered the Baseball World Cup to be the sport's major world championship.[1] Following the 2011 version of the event, the IBAF chose to discontinue the tournament in favor of the World Baseball Classic.[2]
In 2005 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that baseball and softball would be removed from the Summer Olympics 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 the International Softball Federation to create the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).[5]
On 27 November 2014, the WBSC announced the creation of the Premier12 tournament, calling it "the new flagship pro baseball nations championship," 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 the World Baseball Classic took its place and an attempt to boost baseball's bid for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[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 to be confirmed.[11]
See also: WBSC World Rankings. The field of the tournament consists of the 12 best national teams in the world according to the most recent WBSC World Rankings.
Across three stagings of the tournament a total of 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 the Americas and Asia and none have qualified from Africa. At least one team from Europe has qualified for every tournament and Oceania has had one team (Australia) qualify for the last two tournaments.
| Team | Appearances | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=40 | Total | width=40 | First | width=40 | Latest |
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2015 | 2024 | |||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 3 | 2024 | ||||
| 2 | 2024 | ||||
| 2 | 2019 | ||||
| 1 | 2015 | ||||
| 1 | 2024 | ||||
| Year | Hosts | Final | Third place game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | width=8% | Score | Runners-up | Third place | width=8% | Score | Fourth place | ||
| 2015 Details |  Japan | 8–0 | 11–1 (F/7) | ||||||
| 2019 Details | Japan Mexico | 5–3 | 3–2 (F/10) | ||||||
| 2024 Details | Japan Mexico | Future event | Future event | ||||||
See main article: world championships.