Unless you’re a bloody criminal (more anon), you have probably already forgotten about the annoying, noisy Project X. It was that awful found-footage comedy, during which a group of teenagers destroyed their parents’ street over a raucous weekend.

At the time of its release, wags pointed out that there was no chance of it winning any awards come Christmas time. We have been proved wrong. Somewhat amazingly, Project X has achieved the dubious honour of being the most pirated film of 2012. Given that no studio would wish to boast about this achievement, we can, for once, safely assume that that nobody has been artificially boosting the figures.

The top 10 of shame, compiled by Torrent Freak, continues with some less surprising titles: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers.

Project X is, in fact, the lowest grossing film in Torrent Freak’s top five. One could argue that much of the film’s pirate success is down to its release date. Emerging back in March, Project X has had more time to accumulate illegal downloads than The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers. But that logic doesn’t quite hold up. The Hunger Games was released at about the same time as Project X and that film features nowhere in the list.

It really does seem to be down to demographics. The gross-out comedy is aimed at teenage boys, and that group is the most likely to illegally download movies. Hang your heads in shame, young men.