Overview

Elon Musk "Fraud Gamer" Controversy refers to discussions about the tech billionaire supposedly faking his achievements in the RPG Path of Exile 2, specifically in the video game's hardcore mode that players only get one life in. In early January 2025, Elon Musk hosted a livestream on X / Twitter in which he claimed to have achieved a high rank and level in the game, showing off his in-game character named Percy_Verence. However, veteran Path of Exile players and YouTubers Quin69TV and Casual Kripp later posted videos analyzing his inability to use certain in-game mechanics and lack of knowledge about the game's features. Other Path of Exile players noted that publically available information showed his character being piloted from Asia and that he seemingly has a tab named "Elon's map." According to several gamers, these details indicated that Musk had likely hired another player to "grind" for him and get him a higher rank. Other streamers like Asmongold also accused Elon Musk of "account sharing" in subsequent days.

Background

On January 7th, 2025, Elon Musk posted a stream to X^[1] (formerly Twitter) with the caption, "Testing X streaming." The video showed the Tesla and X owner supposedly playing the RPG game Path of Exile 2. The post gathered over 48,000 likes in five days.

Testing X Streaming https://t.co/f8LmyeSUHR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2025

Later on January 7th, YouTuber^[2] and Path of Exile player and Twitch streamer Quin69TV posted a video reacting to Elon Musk's livestream, saying, "He's never played this game before has he," after Musk began clicking around on the game. The YouTuber also notes that Musk has a tab named "Elon's map," as though someone had curated a map for easy of gameplay. The video gathered over 500,000 views in four days.

Developments

On January 8th, 2025, YouTube^[3] channel Casual Kripp posted a clip of streamer Kripparian reacting to Quin69TV's commentary. The YouTuber expressed skepticism about the notion that Elon Musk was spending several hours a day playing Path of Exile 2 to achieve a high rank on his character. He also said that the publicly available data shows that Musk is "playing from Asia or using a VPN to play from Asia," adding to his skepticism about the character being Musk's or being leveled by him. The video gathered over 400,000 views in three days.

Also on January 8th, 2025, Redditor^[5] /u/InstructionOk1175 made a comprehensive post on the subreddit /r/PathOfExile2 documenting the various aspects of Elon Musk's stream that led other players to suspect that he may not be piloting his character. The post gathered over 13,000 upvotes in four days.

Online Reactions

On January 9th, 2025, Twitch streamer and YouTuber^[8] Asmongold posted a video titled, "Massive Elon Musk Scandal," accusing Musk of account sharing and saying, "Trying to have somebody play your account and get people to think you’re a serious, real gamer, is ridiculous. It’s embarrassing." The video gathered over 1 million views in three days.

On January 9th, 2025, Twitter / X^[4] user @AlexAlarga resposted the aforementioned reaction videos with the caption, "What an ego-trip… Elon Musk has been livestreaming himself playing overpowered Path Of Exile 2 character, proudly and seriously pretending that he got there himself, and actual POE veterans are laughing their asses off watching and dissecting that charade. Why Elon, why?🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️" The post gathered over 7,000 likes in three days.

What an ego-trip… Elon Musk has been livestreaming himself playing overpowered Path Of Exile 2 character, proudly and seriously pretending that he got there himself, and actual POE veterans are laughing their asses off watching and dissecting that charade. Why Elon, why?🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/kAIKYoaEGq

— Alex Alarga ⏹️ (@AlexAlarga) January 9, 2025

On the official Path of Exile forums, numerous discussion threads were created surrounding the controversy and Elon Musk's account in mid-January 2025. On January 8th, forum user Zoddo#3014 posted a thread titled "Posts being deleted without breaking any rules" inquiring why users' posts "asking for an investigation of Elon Musk's account" were purportedly being deleted from the site, with a GGG employee replying, "I have passed your message on to a senior staff member, who will be contacting you soon to discuss this issue privately."

On January 10th, Redditor^[6] /r/JRoyales made a post to /r/PathofExile2 that read, "Elon just died at rank 7," gathering over 7,000 upvotes in two days. The post shows a screenshot from the in-game chat logs that noted Musk's character, Percy_Verence, died at level 97 with a ladder position of seven overall.^[9]

On January 11th, 2025, YouTuber Quin69TV posted a video to his X^[7] account @quinrex, asking, "is @ElonMusk lying about being good at video games?" The video delved into Quin69TV's theory that Musk is hiring people to grind for him in video games and taking credit for their work. The post gathered over 6,000 likes in a day.

is @ElonMusk lying about being good at video games? pic.twitter.com/TDGb4vsgXf

— Quin (@quinrex) January 11, 2025

Also on January 11th, YouTuber Cr1TiKaL (penguinz0) then uploaded a video on the Elon Musk "fraud gamer" controversy, receiving nearly 3.5 million views, 156,000 likes and 20,100 comments in two days.

Search Interest

External References