Elon Musk really wants you to think he's a pro gamer but the Path of Exile 2 community has receipts

Not content with allegedly being one of the top 20 Diablo 4 players in the world while running six companies, the self-titled "Technoking of Tesla" Elon Musk has now turned his attention to Path of Exile 2. Since the popular ARPG launched in November, Musk has been flexing his action-rpg muscles, but his claims are raising eyebrows.

A recent stream showcased some questionable gameplay and inventory management, sparking the Path of Exile 2 community to compile a damning thread of evidence that suggests Musk may not be the hardcore gaming Chad he claims to be.

So good, he got banned.

Elon kicked things off shortly after Path of Exile 2 launched with a post on X/Twitter claiming he was so good at the game that he got temporarily banned for "too many button clicks." A flex? Perhaps.

To further display his prowess with the game, Elon Musk took to a live stream with his hardcore character on January 7 which you can watch in full here. While it may look like normal gameplay to those not familiar with the game, the Path of Exile 2 community cottoned on to multiple signs during the stream that perhaps Elon Musk doesn't understand even the basics of grinding the ARPG let alone the level of play required to get to his current level.

The stream that gave the game away

In a brilliant Reddit thread, the community broke down Musk's stream, pointing out glaring errors. For context, Musk's Hardcore character, Percy_Verence, ranks 7th on the Path of Exile 2 leaderboard at the time of writing — a feat that requires hundreds of hours of grinding to acquire top-tier equipment. Hardcore means if your character dies, they are gone forever, and you start again, and he's had multiple Hardcore characters at high levels already.

Yet during the stream, Musk:

• Struggled to realize his mana was drained, clicking aimlessly for 10 seconds before using a flask.
• Left valuable loot on the ground while picking up loot inconsequential for his player level.
• Entered maps with a full inventory, attempting to pick up items manually despite having no space.
• Seemed confused about fundamental inventory management in general.

Now, I’m no Path of Exile 2 expert myself (and wouldn’t dream of streaming my Diablo 4 gameplay for public critique), but these are rookie mistakes — ones you wouldn’t expect from someone claiming mastery of the game.

Does Elon Musk account share?

Only 10 days after the game's launch, Musk streamed Path of Exile 2 from an airplane to demonstrate Starlink. It wasn't a simple 25 minutes of gameplay, though. He chose to tackle the Arbiters of Ash, which requires hours upon hours of intensive grinding and nine Citadels to obtain the materials required to get there.

Having hundreds of hours to spare when he looks after all of those businesses is damn impressive. Except the stream showed him using a character account called MonkEBiznizz, who when players have messaged to trade the chat has defaulted to Chinese. Oh and Musk was playing on the Hong Kong realm, while seemingly struggling to complete the content enough to be mocked by the chat.

Players have also pointed out that in Musk's most recent stream, the stash tabs are named oddly, one being 'Elon's Map' suggesting the account may be shared or managed by others.

This indicates that the tab has been created specifically for Musk's ease of use. He also doesn't seem to understand how he has compiled his own gear when talking to the stream, remarking that his weapon is only a level 62 requirement, yet his character is level 95. Something that even a basic Diablo 4 player like myself can understand means diddly squat, as it's the item level itself that matters., and as Redditors like frenchpatato have pointed out, it's a "mirror tier staff".

Could Elon Musk be inflating his Diablo 4 performance too?

The claim that Elon Musk is the "19th best Diablo 4 player in the world" has always seemed a bit suspicious to me, though I’ve never put my thoughts on the matter into writing — until now. While Diablo 4 isn’t as complex a game as Path of Exile 2, making Musk’s claim slightly more believable, the method of measuring top players is unreliable at best.

Unlike Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, the game has no official leaderboards. Instead, rankings depend on players completing The Pit and logging their results on third-party websites like Helltide.com. Being 19th on this leaderboard is still an impressive feat, but it’s worth noting that many top-level players likely don’t bother submitting their results.

To achieve the Pit levels Musk claims to have completed, which he has live-streamed alongside top Diablo 4 streamer Rob, you’d need near-perfect gear. Achieving this requires countless hours of farming, re-rolling stats, and spending gold. While Musk’s collaboration with Rob was undoubtedly entertaining, it’s hard to imagine a hobbyist like Musk — who juggles multiple companies — keeping pace with a professional streamer whose job revolves around the game. Even other CEOs have expressed skepticism about this. Siqi Chen, CEO of Runway , remarked, “I have it on good authority that the most airtight NDA on the planet is the one signed by the team of pro gamers ghostplaying Diablo IV for Elon.” He later added, with a touch of admiration, that if he had infinite money, speedrunning gaming world records is exactly how he’d spend it too — and he respects Musk for doing the same (if that is indeed what he is doing.)

Jury is out, but Elon, you don't have to be the best

Of course, everything speculated about here hasn't been 100% verified and Elon Musk could in fact be better at gaming than all of us. After all, our own Brendan Lowry tested Musk’s infamous Elden Ring build, and while it wasn’t optimal, it wasn’t completely terrible.

Still, there’s an important takeaway here: It’s okay to be just okay at games — or even bad at them! The gaming community is for everyone, regardless of skill level. But if you’re going to claim to be the best, prepare for the ARPG community to scrutinize your every move.