Twitch: Game streaming was huge in 2013, will get bigger in 2014

Popular streaming provider Twitch today released a "Twitch 2013 Retrospective" report chronicling some of the achievements made in 2013 and laying out its ambitions for 2014. In short, 2013 was a big year for Twitch, so big that the company believes we'll look back at the year as a turning point for video game streaming.

"When video game historians look back on gaming a decade from now, 2013 will be the year they cite as the tipping point of streaming,” Twitch VP of marketing Matthew DiPietro said in a statement. “Every major event, publisher, developer, and media outlet in the gaming industry had a presence on Twitch, and streaming became an ever-present piece of the gaming experience. And it's only going to get bigger.”

You can check out the full Twitch retrospective report here, but we've pulled out some of the biggest data points and highlighted them below. Notably, the Xbox One remains without Twitch streaming support, and the report does not mention when this will arrive.

• Twitch users watched 12 billion minutes of content per month in 2013, more than double what they watched in 2012.
  The average Twitch user is 21 years old.
• 68 percent of Twitch users cut back on watching traditional TV to focus on game entertainment.
• Twitch had 45 million unique viewers per month in 2013, up from 20 million unique viewers in 2012.
• 20 percent of all Twitch broadcasts between December 23, 2013 and January 3, 2014 came from PlayStation 4 owners.
• Twitch hosted 6 million total video broadcasts per month in 2013, more than double 2012's figures.
• Twitch had 900,000 unique broadcasters per month in 2013, compared to 300,000 in 2012.
• The average Twitch user watched 106 minutes of content per day, up from 85 minutes in 2012.