The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced on Thursday (Dec. 19, 2024) an update to the WBSC World Rankings Methodology and Guidelines, aiming to provide all teams with equal opportunities and enhancing competitive balance among programs from different continents. 

The new methodology—available to read by clicking HERE —will be implemented with the first update of the rankings in 2025.

The ranking methodology outline the rules for calculating and managing rankings across all disciplines: Men’s Baseball, Women’s Baseball, Men’s Softball, Women’s Softball and Baseball5.

These documents categorize events and specify how points are awarded to participating teams based on their tournament performance.

The most significant change specifies that only the most recent edition of any event will be included in the World Rankings for its respective discipline. The ranking points earned by any national team will remain in the World Ranking for exactly four years.

However, if an event takes place within four years of the previous edition, the points from the earlier edition will be removed from the rankings as soon as the next edition is held. 

The new methodology also outlines the points calculation for the new two-stage World Cups, introduced in 2023, as well as the different competition categories.

With the next edition of the WBSC Premier12 taking place in 2027 and its qualifiers in 2026. the top 12 teams in the WBSC Men’s Baseball World Ranking on December 31, 2025 will earn an invitation to participate in the WBSC’s flagship tournament while the teams 13-18 plus two hosts will feature in the qualifiers.

In 2009, the world governing body for baseball, IBAF, published for the first time the men’s baseball world ranking, followed by the women’s baseball in 2012.

In 2016, after the merger between IBAF and the ISF (former international governing body for softball), the WBSC published the world rankings for women’s and men’s softball disciplines, which tracked the performance of each country’s National Team in the Softball World Cups.

The latest ranking was introduced in 2023, with the launch of the Baseball5 World Ranking.

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About the World Baseball Softball Confederation

Headquartered in Pully, Switzerland — adjacent to Lausanne, the Olympic Capital — the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the world governing body for baseball and softball.

The WBSC has 204 National Federation and Associate Members in 137 countries and territories across Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania, which represent a united baseball/softball sports movement that encompasses over 65 million athletes and attracts approximately 150 million fans to stadiums worldwide annually. 

The WBSC governs all international competitions involving official National Teams. The WBSC oversees the Premier12, the World Baseball Classic and Baseball World Cups (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23 and Women’s), Softball World Cups, (U-15 Women’s, U-18 Women’s, U-18 Men’s, U-23 Men’s, Women’s and Men’s), and official disciplines Baseball5 (Senior and Youth World Cups) and E-Sports as well as Baseball, Softball and Baseball5 events at the Olympic Games.

For more information, visit www.wbsc.org, which is available in six languages: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.