The '''Group Stage''' was the first stage of the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship]]. Qualified teams were split into 2 groups of 8 teams each following a [[serpentine system]] based on the Women's Softball [[WBSC World Rankings]]. Teams played a [[Round-robin tournament|round-robin]] within their group, the top 4 teams in each group advanced to the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship#Playoff Round|playoff round]] and the bottom 4 sent to the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship#Placement Round|placement round]].
The '''Group Stage''' was the first stage of the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship]]. Qualified teams were split into 2 groups of 8 teams each following a [[serpentine system]] based on the Women's Softball [[WBSC World Rankings]].<ref name=regulations>{{cite web |url=https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wbsc-bucket/docs/20180630091144-wbsc-softball-competition-and-technical-code-2018---eng.pdf |title=Softball Competition & Technical Code 2018 |date=2018-06-30 |website=WBSC.org |publisher=[[World Baseball Softball Confederation]] |access-date=2021-06-09}}</ref> Teams played a [[Round-robin tournament|round-robin]] within their group, the top 4 teams in each group advanced to the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship#Playoff Round|playoff round]] and the bottom 4 sent to the [[2018 Women's Softball World Championship#Placement Round|placement round]].<ref name=final>{{cite web |url=https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wbsc-bucket/docs/20180816022955-xvi-women%5C%27s-softball-world-championship-final-report.pdf |title=XVI Women's Softball World Championship Final Report |date=2018-08-16 |website=WBSC.org |publisher=World Baseball Softball Confederation |access-date=2021-06-11}}</ref>