As we all know, Elon Musk is a busy man. He runs six companies, including Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX. Despite his packed schedule, Musk has boundless energy. He also manages to tweet ten to dozens of tweets every day.
After the presidential election, Musk became a prominent figure in the public eye. But among all his duties, he leads the DOGE efficiency department.
What many might not expect is that Musk finds time to play video games. In fact, he claims to be a world-class professional gamer. This is at least what he says. 
Musk’s Gaming Claims
In November of last year, Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He claimed to have reached the top 20 in Diablo IV worldwide.
Later, in December, a similar game called Path of Exile 2 was released. Musk, the self-proclaimed “top 20” player, achieved the top ranks in Path of Exile 2 within just one month.
By January, reports confirmed that Musk’s character had reached 7th place on Path of Exile 2’s official leaderboard, just a month after the game’s release.
His character was extremely high-level, and his equipment was excellent. This meant that he had spent hundreds of hours grinding through the game, collecting items. It’s likely he played for over eight hours a day on average.
The Truth Behind the Rankings
But many started to wonder how Musk, who is busy running multiple companies, could be so good at two games. It didn’t take long for the internet detectives to start digging. They discovered that his two “world-class” accounts were likely inflated.
First off, Diablo IV does not actually have an official ranking system. Musk’s claim of being in the “world’s top 20” came from a third-party leaderboard. To be blunt, this leaderboard was obscure. There were fewer than 1,000 participants, while Diablo IV had at least hundreds of thousands of players. Most gaming media pointed out that Musk was skilled at playing, but claiming to be in the top 20 was an exaggeration.
As for the new Path of Exile 2, Musk didn’t seem to play at a high level. In early January, Musk streamed over an hour of Path of Exile 2. His true skills were exposed. Forbes magazine highlighted rookie mistakes: Musk hoarded useless items in his inventory and didn’t discard them. When valuable items appeared, he didn’t pick them up. Musk also forgot to drink potions when his character ran out of mana during a boss fight.
One professional streamer, commenting on his gameplay, said: “Musk, honestly, you’re embarrassing me. You shouldn’t be lying about this.”
Musk’s Livestream Drama
In January, Musk was seen at Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, Path of Exile 2 players noticed his account was quietly logged in.
Clearly, Musk’s claim of being a “world-class” gamer was likely the result of hiring professional players.
According to a Reddit user analysis, it’s highly probable that Musk used a Chinese booster. Musk later admitted to hiring a booster but didn’t think it was shameful. He explained that achieving top rankings in Diablo and Path of Exile required a team effort, so hiring help wasn’t unusual.
The Latest Gaming Session
After the controversy, Musk lay low in the gaming world. However, recently, he resumed gaming. On April 5, Musk livestreamed nearly two hours of Path of Exile 2 aboard his private jet, while testing Starlink’s in-flight Wi-Fi.
Throughout the livestream, his gameplay was far from impressive—he even died to the tutorial boss.
But the worst part of the stream wasn’t the gameplay. Musk was bombarded with abusive private messages throughout the session. He remained stoic, blocking some messages but saying little. Within the first 10 minutes, Musk received countless hate messages. One user had created an account named “Elon_is_a_pedophile” and spammed the chat, “You have no real friends, you’ll die alone!” Multiple variations of this message followed.
There were more messages like: “Musk is pathetic,” and “You ruined this country, just like you ruined all your marriages!”
One message even claimed to be from Musk’s alleged 13th child’s mother, “Ashley St. Clair,” demanding child support.
Musk appeared unfazed but eventually blocked the user.
Reflections on the Stream
Although Path of Exile 2 has an option to block private messages, Musk chose not to use it. Some viewers even tried to help him block the offensive messages, but Musk let the hate flood in. It seemed like he had grown immune to such abuse.
At the end of the stream, Musk’s game froze, and he casually said, “Well, I’m disconnected.” His character died soon after, and he abruptly ended the livestream, later deleting the video from Twitter.
Interestingly, even after the stream ended, hate messages continued to flood his chat box.
Conclusion
Musk’s livestream, his “world-class” gaming claims, and the online abuse that followed have all added another layer to his public persona. He is constantly under a microscope, a blend of admiration and criticism, with very little space for him to just be “human.”
Regardless of whether his gaming skills are genuine or outsourced, it seems the internet will continue to scrutinize Musk—both for his successes and his flaws. Only time will tell whether Musk will keep on streaming or let his gaming skills fade into the background of his many ventures.
