Bruno Mars has earned the unfortunate title of most pirated star of 2013.

Data collated by BitTorrent shows that the singer has fallen foul to over 5.7 million illegal downloads throughout 2013 with Rihanna following closely behind him having been downloaded illegally 5.4 million times.

Daft Punk came in third having been downloaded 4.2 million times.

Gregory Mead of Musicmetric commented on the findings saying: "Of course we don't condone piracy, but what is clear is that BitTorrent data offers a granular insight into a band's fan engagement.”

"You can see where people live and if you know where your fans are, you can plan a tour and engage with them."

The most pirated film of the year was “The Hobbit” which has been downloaded 8.4 million times.

The top ten most pirated artists of 2013 are as follows:

1. Bruno Mars - 5,783,556

2. Rihanna - 5,414,166

3. Daft Punk - 4,212,361

4. Justin Timberlake - 3,930,185

5. Flo Rida - 3,470,825

6. Kanye West - 3,199,969

7. Eminem - 3,176,122

8. Jay Z - 3,171,358

9. Drake - 3,139,408

10. Pitbull - 3,138,308