At first glance, the claim seems unlikely: In addition to being the world’s richest man, the CEO of multiple companies and a key adviser to President Trump, Elon Musk says he’s also a world-class video game player.
It’s a claim that Mr. Musk has repeated over the years. He has an account on X, his social media platform, dedicated to posting highlights of his game. He has streamed with some of the best competitive video game players in the world on platforms like Twitch. He has even carved his name on the global leaderboards of several games.
But last week, the gaming community he has long tried to impress turned on him. It started with a live broadcast of Mr. Musk playing Path of Exile 2, a popular action role-playing game known for its difficulty. Despite his account showing that he had won one of the highest levels of the game, his game looked like that of an amateur.
Internet pundits made YouTube videos and used Reddit threads to analyze his game, exposing the mistakes a rookie would make. Other players pointed out that Mr. Musk’s Path of Exile account has been active at times when he was unable to play himself, such as on Monday morning while he was at Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr Musk’s account status showed he was logged into the game and within a “map”, meaning it was possible – though not certain – that someone on the account was playing the game while Mr Musk was sitting behind Mr Trump . .
“How are you there?” a broadcaster asked as he watched a split screen of the game and Mr Musk in the Capitol Rotunda as Mr Trump was sworn in. “How are you in the Sulfur Caverns now, Elon?”
Thousands of players took to X to accuse Mr. Musk of “boosting” his account — that is, paying for upgrades on third-party websites, or hiring people to play his accounts for him. It was the games equivalent of Stolen Valor.
It’s rare that anything the billionaire touches, whether he’s launching missiles or killing the digital Goatman, results in anything other than controversy. But for Mr. Musk, the “hard player” is a key part of the identity he has tried to project: a polymath who is equal parts auto mogul, space pioneer and serial tech entrepreneur.
Although he has become one of the most powerful people in the Trump administration, he has gone to great lengths to show that he values video game culture. And among Mr. Musk’s very online and very male fans, his excellent gaming skills are something to admire.
“He wants people to really look up to him,” said Rod Breslau, a longtime video game analyst and consultant. “He has to be good at video games, so he’s cool with all the fans, all his tech events, all the people who are in his world of tech, gamers, and AI.”
Mr Musk has pushed for a high profile in the gaming world for years. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the billionaire, Mr. Musk sought a role in Cyberpunk 2077, the much-hyped futuristic video game franchise debuting in 2020. (His ex-girlfriend Claire Boucher, who performs music like Grimes and with whom he has three children, played a character in the game.)
He broadcast himself playing Diablo 4, the monster-slaying series that broke sales records when it was released. And he raved about the hit roleplaying game Elden Ring, calling it “the most beautiful art” he’d ever seen in a post for X.
But the power players have been skeptical. In 2022, Mr. Musk raised eyebrows in the gaming community when he posted a photo of his character’s Elden Ring “build,” which is the various types of gear players can use to customize their characters. Fans of the game called it a “garbage build,” consisting of a series of nonsensical gear choices made by someone who seemed to have no idea how to play the game.
Mr. Musk discussed his games in an interview in November with Joe Rogan, the famous podcaster. Mr. Musk cited an unofficial leaderboard that showed him ranked as one of the top 20 Diablo 4 players in the world.
The players asked how that was possible. The time it took to earn some of the items and abilities Mr. Musk’s game character had achieved — up to 10 hours of play a day, by some estimates — didn’t seem to fit in with his schedule of travel and events.
Mr Musk hit back at detractors in posts on X – some of which he later deleted – and attacked some of the critics for their gaming skills.
But a week ago, he admitted to Nicholas Hayes, a YouTube gaming personality, that he had indeed grown his accounts.
In the messages that Mr. Hayes shared in a YouTube video, he asked the billionaire if he raised him, and Mr. Musk responded with a 100% emoji.
“It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you don’t do that,” Musk said in the messages. He later reposted the video to his X feed. He did not respond to requests for comment.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Hayes said he was not surprised by the revelation. He has played Diablo with Mr Musk in the past and recalled moments when the billionaire hinted that he had not earned his character’s outfit himself, or that another player had given it to him as a gift.
“I mean, it’s Elon Musk,” Mr. Hayes said. “If you play with him, you’re sure to give him a bunch of stuff.”
However, Mr. Musk defended his gaming skills and said in messages to Mr. Hayes that growth is common among elite Diablo players. And two of the mothers of his children have come to his defense.
“Simply for my own personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first American diablo druid to clear the zirn slaughterhouse and finish that season as the best in the USA,” Ms. Boucher wrote in X, crediting referencing one of the game’s difficult dungeon maps. “I observed these things with my own eyes.”
Shivon Zilis, who has worked with Mr. Musk at several of his companies and is known to be the mother of his three children, posted a video last week in which Mr. Musk plays Diablo. In response, she shared a memory when he played for 17 hours on Christmas Day in 2023.
“He took time off for family meals and Christmas presents, but was too excited to sleep, so he spent time with the kids and a 17 hour AoZ job that day,” she wrote, referring to a Diablo challenge. “It was a joy to see her having so much fun with it!”
The upgrade violates the terms of Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2. But the market for third-party upgrades is robust, and players can choose from a number of websites to upgrade their accounts, most of which charge thousands of dollars.
A spokesman for Blizzard, Diablo’s publisher, declined to comment. Grinding Gear Games, the publisher of Path of Exile, did not respond to a request for comment.
Some Path of Exile players who have known Mr. Musk, an avid gamer for decades, was disappointed to discover that he had paid to upgrade his account, including Dennis Fong, one of the first professional e-sports players.
In an interview, Mr. Fong said he had played the video game Quake on the same Stanford University servers as Mr. Musk in the 1990s. (Mr. Musk was not a student.) “He was good,” Mr. Fong said of Mr. Musk, who used the screen name Zip2, the name of the company he had recently started. “Not one of the best in the world.”
When Mr. Musk bragged about his Diablo game on X and on the Mr. But, watching the Path of Exile game, Mr. Fung said, “it was clear he had no idea what was going on.”
Mr Breslau said Musk reminded him of a teenager. “That way,” added Mr. Breslau, “he is a real player.”
