On its face, the declare feels inconceivable: In addition to being the world’s richest man, the chief govt of a number of firms and a key adviser to President Trump, Elon Musk says he’s additionally a world-class online game participant.
It is a declare that Mr. Musk has repeated by way of the years. He has an account on X, his social media platform, devoted to posting highlights of his gameplay. He has streamed with a few of the prime aggressive online game gamers on this planet on platforms like Twitch. He has even etched his title on the worldwide chief boards of sure video games.
But final week, the group of players he’s lengthy tried to impress turned towards him. It began with a livestream of Mr. Musk enjoying Path of Exile 2, a preferred motion role-playing recreation identified for its issue. Despite his account exhibiting he had earned one of many recreation’s highest ranges, his gameplay seemed like that of an novice.
Internet sleuths made YouTube movies and took to Reddit threads to dissect his gameplay, exposing errors a novice would make. Other players identified that Mr. Musk’s Path of Exile account has been energetic at occasions he couldn’t have been enjoying himself, like on Monday morning, whereas he was at Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Musk’s account standing indicated that he was logged into the sport and inside a “map,” which meant it was potential — although not sure — that somebody on the account was enjoying the sport whereas Mr. Musk was sitting behind Mr. Trump.
“How are you there?” one streamer questioned whereas watching a break up display of the sport and Mr. Musk on the Capitol Rotunda, as Mr. Trump was being sworn in. “How are you in the Sulphuric Caverns right now, Elon?”
Thousands of players took to X to accuse Mr. Musk of “boosting” his account — that’s, paying for upgrades on third-party web sites, or hiring folks to play his accounts for him. It was the gaming equal of stolen valor.
It is uncommon that one thing the billionaire touches, whether or not he’s launching rockets or slaying digital Goatmen, ends in something however controversy. But for Mr. Musk, “hardcore gamer” is a key a part of the identification he has tried to venture: a polymathic nerd’s nerd who’s equal elements auto mogul, house pioneer and serial tech entrepreneur.
Even as he has change into some of the highly effective folks within the Trump administration, he has gone to nice lengths to point out he appreciates online game tradition. And amongst Mr. Musk’s very on-line and really male fandom, nice gaming abilities are one thing to be admired.
“He wants people to really look up to him,” stated Rod Breslau, a longtime online game analyst and advisor. “He needs to be good at video games so that he can be cool to all of the fans, all his tech events, all the people that are in his tech, gamer and A.I. world.”
Mr. Musk has pushed for a excessive profile within the gaming world for years. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the billionaire, Mr. Musk demanded a task in Cyberpunk 2077, the much-hyped, futuristic online game franchise that debuted in 2020. (His former girlfriend Claire Boucher, who performs music as Grimes and with whom he has three youngsters, performed a personality within the recreation.)
He has streamed himself enjoying Diablo 4, the brooding, monster-slaying collection that broke gross sales information when it was launched. And he has fawned over the smash hit role-playing recreation Elden Ring, calling it “the most beautiful art” he had ever seen in a submit to X.
But hardcore players have been skeptical. In 2022, Mr. Musk raised eyebrows within the gaming group when he posted a photograph of his Elden Ring character’s “build,” which is the various forms of gear gamers can use to customise their characters. Fans of the sport referred to as it a “trash build,” composed of a collection of nonsensical gear decisions made by somebody who appeared to do not know how you can play the sport.
Mr. Musk mentioned his gaming in a November interview with Joe Rogan, the superstar podcaster. Mr. Musk cited an unofficial leaderboard that confirmed him ranked as one of many prime 20 Diablo 4 gamers on this planet.
Gamers questioned how that was potential. The period of time wanted to achieve a few of the gadgets and skills Mr. Musk’s recreation character had attained — as a lot as 10 hours of gameplay a day, by some estimates — didn’t appear to line up along with his journey and occasion schedule.
Mr. Musk fired again at naysayers in posts on X — a few of which he later deleted — and attacked a few of the critics for their very own gaming skills.
But per week in the past, he admitted to Nicholas Hayes, a gaming YouTube persona, that he had, certainly, boosted his accounts.
In messages Mr. Hayes shared in a YouTube video, he requested the billionaire if he boosted, and Mr. Musk responded with a 100% emoji.
“It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you don’t,” Mr. Musk stated in messages. He later reposted the video to his personal X feed. He didn’t reply to requests for remark.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Hayes stated he wasn’t stunned by the revelation. He has performed Diablo with Mr. Musk up to now, and he recalled moments when the billionaire implied he had not earned his character’s gear himself, or that one other participant had given it to him as a present.
“I mean, it’s Elon Musk,” Mr. Hayes stated. “If you play with him, you’re probably going to give him a bunch of stuff.”
Still, Mr. Musk defended his gaming aptitude, and stated within the messages to Mr. Hayes that boosting is commonplace amongst elite gamers in Diablo. And two of the moms of his youngsters have come to his protection.
“Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first american druid in diablo to clear abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA,” Ms. Boucher wrote on X, referring to one of many recreation’s tough dungeon maps. “I did observe these things with my own eyes.”
Shivon Zilis, who has labored with Mr. Musk at a number of of his firms and is thought to be the mom of three of his youngsters, posted a video final week of Mr. Musk enjoying Diablo. In the replies, she recounted a reminiscence of when he gamed for 17 hours on Christmas Day in 2023.
“He took breaks for family meals and Xmas presents but was too excited for sleep, which is how he made both time with the kiddos and a 17 hour AoZ push work that day,” she wrote, referring to a problem in Diablo. “Was a joy to see him having so much fun with it!”
Boosting violates the phrases and circumstances of Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2. But the marketplace for third-party upgrades is strong, and gamers can select from quite a few web sites to improve their accounts, most of which cost hundreds of {dollars}.
A spokesman for Blizzard, the writer of Diablo, declined to remark. Grinding Gear Games, the writer of Path of Exile, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Some Path of Exile gamers who’ve identified Mr. Musk to be an avid gamer for many years have been upset to seek out out he had paid to boost his account, together with Dennis Fong, one of many first skilled e-sports gamers.
In an interview, Mr. Fong recounted enjoying the online game Quake on the identical Stanford University servers as Mr. Musk within the Nineteen Nineties. (Mr. Musk was not a scholar.) “He was decent,” Mr. Fong stated of Mr. Musk, who used the display title Zip2, the title of the corporate he had lately began. “Not one of the best in the world.”
When Mr. Musk bragged about his Diablo gameplay on X and on Mr. Rogan’s podcast final 12 months, Mr. Fong stated he needed to consider it was true, as Diablo is usually thought-about a straightforward recreation with out a lot of a aggressive scene. But watching the Path of Exile gameplay, Mr. Fong stated, it was “obvious he had no idea what was going on.”
Mr. Breslau stated Mr. Musk reminded him of a young person. “In that way,” Mr. Breslau added, “he is a true gamer.”