Elon Musk has long boasted about his love for video games, calling them his “primary recreational activity.” “I’m 52 years old, my reflexes aren’t what they used to be, but I’ve been playing video games all my life,” he said in November 2023. He’s frequently mentioned that he uses video games as a form of relaxation and mental recalibration: “It calms my mind. Killing the demons in a video game calms the demons in my mind. If you play a tough video game, you can get into a state of flow which is very enjoyable.”
So many life lessons to be learned from speedrunning video games on max difficulty. Teaches you to see the matrix, rather than simply exist in the matrix.
Diablo Tier 150 finished in under 2 mins.
(That’s what she said😂) pic.twitter.com/KYvKm2vIy5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2024
In November of this year Musk started bragging more. He said in a podcast that he was one of the top 20 players in the world at Diablo IV, a recently released action role-playing game set in a fictional realm where players advance by slaying demons. Weeks later, he flaunted his progress in another new game, Path of Exile 2.
With his unstoppable empire building as the owner of X, CEO of five other well-known companies, his successful entry into politics and so much praise as a gamer, more video game streamers and YouTubers began paying closer attention to Musk’s behavior while playing games in videos he posted. The buzz spread from X to Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch. In January, several viral videos emerged with titles like “Elon Musk is lying about being good at video games.”
The tension came to a head on Monday with a surprise twist: YouTuber NikoWrex, who has about 3,000 followers on both X and YouTube and describes himself as a “friend” of Musk, revealed a private conversation with the tycoon on X, with Musk’s permission.
In the conversation, Musk admitted to using two forms of cheating: one, having others play on his account to boost his level, and two, paying real money on external websites for weapons and services that can only be earned through significant in-game effort (a cheat known as RMT, or real money trading). To put these cheats into context, it’s like Musk boasting about running 10 kilometers in under 35 minutes, showing the time on his running app as proof, and recording himself sprinting the last 300 meters. In reality, though, the watch used to track his performance would almost always be worn by a pro
