Kareem Shaheen and Alec D’Angelo write:

Musk’s ability to reach the worldwide top 20 leaderboards in the run-up to Trump’s inauguration raised eyebrows, since he essentially would have needed to play the game [Path of Exile] nonstop for two weeks to achieve the rank. Then he began streaming the game, and it was abundantly clear that he wasn’t familiar with its interface or his own equipment — or even with the game’s basic mechanics.

The kicker was that, at one point, Musk was apparently logged into the game and playing while at the same time speaking at a Spaces event on his X platform in support of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The response, naturally, was merciless, despite his large and dedicated fanbase on online platforms like Twitch and Reddit. Videos exposing Musk on the sites garnered millions of comments, views and reactions. One Reddit user described watching him fumble around in Path of Exile as akin to someone claiming to be a top-tier racer but having trouble opening the car door.

Eventually, Musk relented and admitted to buying “boosts” to make his video game characters more impressive than they were.

Why does the wealthiest man in the world, and one of the most powerful, care what a bunch of online gamers have to say about him?

Well, first of all, it’s not just a bunch of terminally online nerds that Musk is selling an image and persona to. The gaming industry in 2022 generated an estimated $184.4 billion, nearly four times as much as the music and film industries combined. All the top streamers on Twitch stream themselves playing video games, and the 20th most popular channel has over 7 million followers. Streamers, particularly the most popular ones, generate obscene amounts of revenue from subscribers and loyal fans.

Many of them are young and male, presumably a key target demographic for Trump’s Musk-backed movement. [Continue reading…]