World Cup

In 1960, representatives from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies met to discuss standardising the rules of the sport. This led to the establishment of the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball (which later became the International Federation of Netball Associations). Formal rules were established at this inaugural meeting and a decision to hold World Championship tournaments every four years was also made. The first World Netball Championship was held in 1963 and was hosted by England. The tournament was renamed to the World Cup as opposed to "Championships" in 2015. Since 1991 the tournament has maintained a format allowing semi-finals and finals matches to be played, where previously the tournament held no finals and instead utilised the round-robin system, which occasionally led to more than one nation being crowned world champions.

Australia or New Zealand have won all of the titles, though emerging netball nations England, South Africa and Jamaica have come close to dislodging the top-tier nations on several occasions. In 1979 Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago were all joint champions. South Africa finished runners-up in 1995, England too in 2023. Jamaica have contested several bronze medal matches and come up short in narrow semi-final defeats. The reigning world champions are Australia, who defeated England in the 2023 final. They will defend their title in Sydney, Australia in 2027.