Can You Trust Elon Musk?
Strangely, Elon has sold out his integrity for, of all things, claims to be very good at...video games?
Does Elon Lie?
We can go into a deep dive at some point into Elon’s character and history. But, let’s start with one, strange 'innocent' claim.
Elon claims to be one of the best in the world at a few different video games. But, he had admitted that he wasn’t actually playing them himself. But he had people playing for him. (Which opens up a few more questions, hm?)
If someone is willing to lie about being 'world #1' or "one of the best players in the world" at a video game (why???) live on the Joe Rogan show, what else would that person lie about?
But I will just post the generated article below first:
Elon Musk’s Gaming Claims: Top-20 Boasts, the Boosting Admission, and the Backlash
Beginning in late 2023 and escalating through 2024 and into 2025, Elon Musk repeatedly presented himself as one of the best players in the world at the action-RPGs Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2, and as a former elite Quake player. Those claims drew first amusement, then scrutiny, and finally a direct admission from Musk that he had used account boosting. This article lays out what he claimed, where he claimed it, and the counterclaims that followed.
1. The central claim: top-20 Diablo IV
Musk’s most prominent assertion came on The Joe Rogan Experience episode #2223, recorded and aired November 4, 2024, the day before the US presidential election. Early in the episode he told Rogan he was one of the top 20 Diablo IV players in the world, said only two Americans appeared on that list, and noted that the leaderboard showed his actual name. He framed high-difficulty gaming as a focus exercise with a calming, restorative effect.
In the same episode he revived an older claim: that in his college days he had been one of the world’s best Quake players, saying he had put more time into Quake than into his classes.
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The Rogan claim rested on the community-run Pit leaderboard at Helltides.com, where an account under Musk’s name held the 19th or 20th spot with a Tier 150 ("The Pit") clear time of 2:45. That leaderboard tracked only around 1,000 to 1,125 players — a small fraction of a player base in the millions — so being "top 20" there was a far narrower achievement than the phrasing implied. |
1.1. Escalation to "number one"
On November 2, 2024, Musk’s main account quote-posted a run from his gaming alt with the line that "this 'Cybergamer420' guy is pretty good," winking at the connection. On November 20, 2024, he posted a sub-two-minute Tier 150 run (reported at 1:52) that, had it been accepted onto the leaderboard, would have placed him at number one ahead of the standing 1:59 record. His ranking was never stable, however; after the election he was reported to have dropped from the top 20 to around 36th place on the same list.
2. Where the claims were made
| Date | Venue | Claim |
|---|---|---|
Oct 2023 |
X game-streaming test (via the @cyb3rgam3r420 alt) |
First high-profile Diablo IV streaming; Musk confirmed in a reply that X was testing the streaming feature, establishing the alt as his. |
Nov 2, 2024 |
X (main account quote-posting the alt) |
Posted a 2:45 Tier 150 Pit clear as proof of skill. |
Nov 4, 2024 |
The Joe Rogan Experience #2223 |
Stated he was a top-20 Diablo IV player worldwide and a former top-tier Quake player. |
Nov 20, 2024 |
X |
Posted a ~1:52 Tier 150 run that would have ranked first if accepted. |
Jan 2025 |
X streams and DMs (Path of Exile 2) |
Claimed a top-15 spot on the Path of Exile 2 Hardcore ladder with his character "Percy_Verence." |
Oct 31, 2025 |
The Joe Rogan Experience #2404 |
A later, separate appearance. |
Over the years Musk has also repeatedly described himself as among the best players in the world at the mobile strategy game The Battle of Polytopia, though those claims live in scattered interviews rather than a single citable moment.
3. The counterclaims
3.1. "The leaderboard is tiny"
The earliest pushback was statistical. The Helltides Pit leaderboard was an unofficial, community-maintained list of roughly a thousand recorded runs, against a Diablo IV population in the millions. Critics argued that "top 20 in the world" was, at best, "top 20 among about a thousand self-reported runs," and at worst unverifiable, since the leaderboard’s own operators acknowledged there was no way to know about runs that were never recorded and shared.
3.2. "Does he even understand the game?"
When Musk streamed a high-level Path of Exile 2 Hardcore character in January 2025, multiple veteran streamers — including Quin, Kripp, and Zach "Asmongold" Hoyt — pointed to apparent gaps in his grasp of basic mechanics, which sat oddly with a globally ranked character. A Reddit investigation flagged further oddities: a full set of rare endgame fragments collected within the game’s first days, plus trade messages and a stash-tab name in Chinese and a link to the Hong Kong realm, despite Musk streaming on the US realm — read as a sign that a second party was progressing the account.
3.3. The boosting admission
The controversy resolved in mid-January 2025. The YouTuber NikoWrex published DMs — which Musk reportedly authorized for release — in a video addressing the Path of Exile 2 drama. Asked directly whether he had ever had someone else play his accounts or bought gear and resources in Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV, Musk responded affirmatively (a "100" emoji). He added that it is impossible to beat the top players in Asia without doing so, since, in his telling, they do the same.
Musk drew one distinction: he maintained that whenever he personally appears on a stream or posts a video of himself playing, "that’s 100% me." In other words, he conceded the accounts were boosted by others off-stream while insisting the on-camera play was his own.
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Account boosting — having a third party play your account to raise its rank — violates the terms of service of both Blizzard’s Diablo IV and Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile 2. Both studios declined to comment when asked whether they would take action against Musk. |
3.4. The Quake dispute
Musk’s separate claim to have been an all-time-great Quake player was challenged by one of the game’s actual top competitive players, who said Musk "wasn’t very good."
4. Voices on each side
| Position | Representative voices |
|---|---|
Defending / vouching |
John Carmack, Doom programmer and Oculus co-founder, publicly stated he believed Musk’s Diablo records were legitimate after watching him play. Musk’s former partner Grimes also defended him publicly, citing a specific Diablo IV first-clear. |
Skeptical / accusing |
Streamers Asmongold, Quin, and Kripp questioned his Path of Exile 2 skill; YouTuber NikoWrex published the boosting-admission DMs; a Reddit investigator surfaced the Hong Kong realm evidence; gaming outlets (Kotaku, PC Gamer, Dexerto, The Gamer) covered the gap between the claims and the verification. |
5. Where it nets out
Two questions sit underneath the whole saga, and they have different answers. Whether the @cyb3rgam3r420 account is Musk’s is well supported — by his own conduct, his product demo of X streaming through it, and his repeated public acknowledgment — even though there is no platform-level cryptographic proof. Whether he personally earned the rankings is the question he himself answered: by his own admission, the accounts were boosted by others, while he maintains that his on-stream play is genuinely his.
6. Selected sources
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PC Gamer — top-20 Diablo claim and the disputed Quake history: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elon-musk-says-hes-one-of-the-worlds-top-20-diablo-4-players-still-reckons-he-was-a-quake-all-time-great-even-after-its-actual-best-player-said-he-wasnt-very-good/
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Dexerto — the Rogan exchange, verbatim: https://www.dexerto.com/diablo/elon-musk-shocks-joe-rogan-with-his-diablo-4-ranking-2972132/
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Kotaku — Rogan recap, plus John Carmack vouching: https://kotaku.com/elon-musk-diablo-4-joe-rogan-trump-election-2024-1851690062
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The Gamer — leaderboard size critique: https://www.thegamer.com/elon-musk-not-world-top-20-diablo-4-players/
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The Gamer — drop out of the top 20 after the election: https://www.thegamer.com/elon-musk-diablo-4-drops-out-of-top-20-unofficial-leaderboard-after-trump-election/
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PC Gamer — the boosting admission: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/elon-musk-admits-account-boosting-on-poe2-and-diablo-4-but-says-deal-with-it-what-would-i-be-apologizing-for/
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Dexerto — boosting admission, detail on the NikoWrex DMs: https://www.dexerto.com/diablo/elon-musk-finally-admits-to-boosting-in-path-of-exile-2-and-diablo-4-3035237/
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Sportskeeda — the Hong Kong realm evidence: https://www.sportskeeda.com/mmo/elon-musk-s-latest-path-exile-2-stream-feigns-success-boosted-account
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Game Rant — Blizzard and GGG decline to comment: https://gamerant.com/blizzard-grinding-gear-games-comment-elon-musk-diablo-path-of-exile/
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Rogan episode #2223 reference: https://thetvdb.com/series/joe-rogan-experience/episodes/10783044