Elon Musk—the world’s richest man, chief of multiple companies, a man with the ear of the President who will take power next week—is getting big-mad online about video games. The billionaire unfollowed Twitch streamer Asmongold, removed the bluecheck from his X account, and leaked private DMs to the public after Asmongold called Musk out for lying about his prowess in the video game Path of Exile 2.
Last week Musk did a livestream of his high-level Path of Exile 2 character. PoE 2 is a Diablo IV-style action RPG and Musk’s character was high level and playing on an especially difficult mode. During the stream, it became obvious to people who actually play PoE 2 that Musk didn’t know how to play the game. The stream had the hallmarks of a person who’d paid someone else to level their account for them.
PoE 2 players have spent the past week mocking Musk online and making countless YouTube videos critiquing his play and pointing out that he’s full of shit. Musk, who will attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump next week and is in charge of a brand new extra-judicial government department, took time out of his busy schedule to fight the charges.
Asmongold seems to have hurt Musk the most. The red-haired, Texas-based streamer is no stranger to controversy. Famous for his disgusting personal hygiene, reaction videos, and getting banned from Twitch for calling Palestine an “inferior culture,” Asmongold makes his living playing video games and commenting on them.
He called bullshit on Musk in a Twitch stream that was cut and uploaded to YouTube on January 12. “The question: did Elon Musk play this account to level 97? The answer is very simple. No. Unequivocally, without a doubt, if Elon Musk can prove that he played this account to 97, I will stream on X starting the day that he proves it for an entire year straight, every single stream that I do,” Asmongold said.
Musk responded by unfollowing Asmongold on X. When another streamer came to the defense of Musk on X, Musk responded. “Asmon behaves like a maverick ‘independent,’ but in reality has to ask his boss for permission before he can do anything. He is not his own man,” Musk said on X.
Then he removed Asmongold’s blue checkmark on X and leaked a DM conversation he’d had with the streamer in November. The conversation alludes to Asmongold’s editors, the two people who cut together his Twitch stream into shorter YouTube videos. It’s a common practice in the business, but one Musk seems to think is strange. “Who are these mysterious editors?” He asked Asmongold in the DM. After the streamer explained, Musk replied with his trademark “interesting.” These seem to be the “bosses” Musk believes Asmongold needs to check with before doing anything.
A community note below Musk’s leaked DM pointed out that the post is a violation of X’s terms of service. “Sharing someone else’s private messages without their express authorization and permission is generally against the platform’s Terms of Service (ToS),” the note explained. But Musk owns the platform, makes changes to it on a whim, and can strip the blue check from anyone he wants when he’s pissed at them. It’s his playground and his rules.
Asmongold was sedate about the controversy on a follow-up stream. “If he wants an apology… we deserve, if you really played the game, play through the campaign again, explain the systems in the game, and do it live,” he said. “And you’ve gotta have a facecam. You did it before with Diablo. Diablo is not so hard, right? Stream it. You gotta stream the whole thing. Not on X.”
Over on X, Musk proved his gaming bonafides by posting a clip of him playing Diablo IV. In replies below the thread, X users posted antisemitic memes of Elon Musk and accused Asmongold of taking money from Saudi Arabia.
It’s just another day on X, the Everything App.
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