Is Elon Musk Good at Diablo 4? Other Tech CEOs Weigh In
Tesla CEO and X.com owner Elon Musk routinely makes headlines for any number of reasons, but recently he has dominated discussion in the gaming space for reasons wholly unrelated to his tweets or his business ventures. In addition to all of his corporate projects, interviews, and speeches, Elon Musk appears to have found time to reach the very top of the Diablo 4 leaderboard.
While Musk often talks about his love for games like Diablo on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) or podcasts, a recent achievement in Diablo 4’s Artificer’s Pit may have shown the tech mogul’s prowess at the game’s highest level.
While the accomplishment quickly drew headlines across the gaming landscape, many have questioned Musk's accomplishment and scrutinized the tech billionaire's other public gaming moments in the days that followed. Let's take a look at the full saga that has unfolded surrounding Elon Musks possible Diablo 4 prowess.
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Is Elon Musk the Top Diablo 4 Player? Explained
On Nov. 1, Elon Musk shared a clip of Diablo 4 gameplay where he claims to have cleared the Tier 150 Artificer’s Pit in record time, posting the first sub-two-minute run in the Pit recorded in Season 6.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2024
Diablo Tier 150 finished in under 2 mins.
(That's what she said😂) pic.twitter.com/KYvKm2vIy5
Musk’s run is not officially listed as of Nov. 21, but his video shows a nearly one-minute and 52-second clear time. Over on the Helltides’ leaderboard, this would put it seven seconds ahead of second place Resistance and a full nine seconds faster than third-place dajing’s time using the same Quill Volley Spirtborn that most top players are using at the time of writing. If his run is verified, he will catapult from his current 44th-ranked run on the leaderboards.
While this is an incredible feat, there are many questioning how Musk would have time to practice and grind endgame Diablo 4 content like this while also operating multiple companies and his other activities.
i have it on good authority that the most airtight NDA on the planet is the one signed by the team of progamers ghostplaying diablo iv for elon https://t.co/lSFQvQGKbS
— Siqi Chen (@blader) November 21, 2024
This includes Runway CEO Siqi Chen, who claims “on good authority” to know that a team of professional gamers has signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and play the game for Musk. In that same thread, Chen reaffirms his claim and theorizes that someone on that squad could make around $350,000 per year—though he doesn’t provide any sources on these claims and still admits that those grinders might just keep his characters leveled and built up for the game’s evolving meta while he himself plays.
Likewise, Oculus co-founder John Carmack confirmed that Musk does play Diablo 4 a lot and is “incredibly serious about it,” claiming that his girlfriend occasionally tags along while Musk plays to get fast level ups. This, along with Musk previously being top 20 on the Helltides’ Pit leaderboard at the time of his interview with Joe Rogan on Nov. 5, proves that he at least puts plenty of time in the game, even if he might have some help in some areas behind the scenes.
How Diablo 4 Leaderboards Work
Instead, sites like Helltides function similarly to Speedrunning communities, where players must submit their own videos and details as proof to be added to be independently verified and added. Notably, Diablo 4 does not have official leaderboards for runs in specific areas pulled from the game directly like other games with online modes. Instead, sites like Helltides function similar to Speedrunning communities where players must submit their own videos and details as proof to be added to be independently verified and added.
It is also important to note that this run was not only documented using the extremely powerful Quill Volley Spirtborn build, but also in a patch where that build can hit for over trillions in damage due to combining strong items with the broken Viscous Shield, something that could be considered an exploit even if everyone is using it this season.
Other Games Elon Musk Is Known to Play
While Elon speaks about how he spends an “embarrassing” amount of time playing games, he doesn’t often share what he plays.
Outside of Diablo 4, Musk’s biggest moment in the gaming space arguably came when he shared one of his Elden Ring builds, which is still a meme in the game’s community for how unfocused it is.
Musk also has a history with Bethesda, even appearing at E3 2019 to speak with executive producer Todd Howard and has said he is a big fan of Fallout. Howard also went to SpaceX and spoke with Musk “a little bit” during Starfield’s development, though nothing about that influenced the game directly.
Ok, fine. Soldier 76. My dark secret is out ...
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017
In some capacity, Musk has also talked about strategy game Polytopia, Kerbal Space Program, Quake, Mass Effect, Super Smash Bros., and Overwatch—he played a lot of Soldier 76.
