Twitch: 68 percent of users have cut back on TV

Twitch is making serious inroads into television viewing habits, according to statistics released by the streaming service today.

About 68 percent of Twitch users have decreased time spent watching TV to focus on game-based entertainment and 58 percent of Twitch's 45 million monthly users spend more than 20 hours a week on the service, according to a report from the company.

The service's viewership reached that 45 million unique users on a monthly basis over the course of 2013, with 12 billion minutes of content watched each month, 6 million videos broadcast and 106 minutes watched daily by users.

The company highlights four main activities done by Twitch users, with 99 percent of viewers watching live streams, 25 percent broadcasting gameplay 38 percent watching video highlights and 61 percent chatting with the Twitch community. The average age range of users is 21 years old, with 76 percent of viewers aged between 18 and 49.

A retrospective compiled by the company is available today and offers an overview of how the service has grown since the beginning of last year. Twitch was first launched in 2011.

"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 told Polygon. "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."

Earlier in the month, the company revealed 20 percent of its Twitch broadcasts betwen Dec. 23, 2013 and Jan. 3 were from PlayStation 4 owners. Since the console's launch, more than 1.7 million streams have been broadcast through PS4.

Microsoft confirmed its Twitch streaming capabilities will take another few months before they become available on Xbox One. Twitch integration was announced at Microsoft's press conference during E3 2013. The service will be exclusive to Xbox Live Gold subscribers and will allow users to upload gameplay directly to Twitch, broadcast and watch other streams.

"We understand that the broadcasting component of Twitch is very important," Microsoft told Polygon, "and it is a major focus on our roadmap as we work to ensure it is seamlessly implemented into our Xbox One experience over the coming months."