WBSC re-streaming of Baseball, Softball World Cup games draws millions of views, provides entertainment amid COVID-19 pandemic
The WBSC restreamed 88 international games (44 baseball and 44 softball), allowing game-starved fans around the world to watch their favorite sport in action.
The WBSC’s restreaming of past Baseball and Softball World Cup contests -- from youth to the professional level -- have registered millions of views from around the world.
The WBSC launched “GameTime Classics” on 23 March and successfully concluded the series on 28 June, featuring 88 of the biggest international baseball and softball games in history. The WBSC launched the series at a time when the majority of sports leagues around the world were shut down due to COVID-19.
Fans rushed to the WBSC Facebook page to watch re-runs of past international
games, which boosted WBSC with more than 15,000 new followers on the platform, as
they watched nearly 8.5 million minutes of WBSC content for an increase of
4,423% from the previous three-month period.
The WBSC YouTube Channel totaled 1.9 million views and added 1,300
subscribers, with visitors watching a total of 185.4k hours of baseball and softball.
The 2018 Women's Softball World Championship Final between Japan and USA was the second most-watched game (approximately 560k minutes watched), while the top baseball game was the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup final between Mexico and Japan, ranked third place overall with 450k minutes viewed.