It’s 2:17 in the morning. Elon Musk is gaming on his private jet.
His webcam is turned on and his face is visible, as is the interior cabin of his private jet, both of which are illuminated by the light from his computer screen as the plane travels through the night sky.
It’s a glimpse into how the world’s richest man spends his downtime, a look in real time at the late nights he frequently references.
Millions of people tuned in as he played video games for 44 minutes, much of which he spent in silence. The Tesla CEO’s gaming livestream in the early hours of April 10 has accumulated 16.7 million views since being posted.
When he did talk, he mentioned turbulence, Starlink, updates to his AI chatbot Grok, the upcoming season of the game “Diablo IV” — and the fact that he’d had a “stressful” week.
“Today was a good day for Tesla,” Musk said in the video. “It’s been kind of a stressful week frankly. But today was a good day.”
The billionaire CEO has been dealing with a lot: feuding with Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, over tariffs, Tesla’s declining sales and volatile stock price amid global protests, and his continued work with DOGE.
It’s not the first time Musk has posted a livestream video of himself gaming. Usually, the billionaire does so under his gamer-focused handle @cyb3rgam3r420. The sessions sometimes last several hours and show glimpses of Musk taking care of his son, or discussing different topics, like what kind of armor Roman legions wear or whether Tesla would ever make a smartphone.
His most recent livestreams from his private jet, however, also served another purpose: testing out Starlink’s “airborne connectivity” and talking up the satellite internet service ahead of some major launches. SpaceX, Musk’s space exploration company, has recently signed partnerships to roll out Starlink in a number of airlines including Air France, Qatar Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, and United Airlines.
The recent gaming session livestreams also provide Musk, who has previously bragged about his gaming skills and achievements, an opportunity to get some street cred back after a YouTuber and gamer, NikoWrex, posted what he said where screenshots of a January conversation he had over DM with Musk. According to the screenshots, Musk talked about “account boosting,” or paying other players to level up one’s account, because it was “impossible to beat the players in Asia” otherwise — an idea some gamers said they agreed with.
Musk, who at the time reposted NikoWrex’s video about the account-boosting conversation, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
But the possibility that Musk was bragging about gaming achievements made while using an account others had been paid to play quickly generated criticism among some high-profile members of the gaming community, including the social media account for the hit game “Assassin’s Creed.”
While Musk’s recent livestreams provided a look into how the CEO decompresses — in one case, during a flight to DC — they likely won’t quiet the criticisms of his gaming skills.
Musk repeatedly died while playing “hardcore” mode (in his defense, one of his virtual deaths happened after receiving a “connection lost” message while using Starlink).
He decided to switch things up during his next livestream.
“I’m playing softcore instead of hardcore this time,” he said.
