Yes, this actually happened. Elon Musk hopped on a livestream from his private jet to flex Starlink’s in-flight internet—and chose to do it by playing Path of Exile 2. Hardcore mode, no less. The goal? Show off low-latency gameplay from 30,000 feet. The result? A swift and embarrassing death at the hands of a tutorial boss.
A Very Elon Setup
Image Credit: Official SpaceX Photos – Starlink Mission, CC0/Wiki Commons
The stream kicked off as a “Starlink continuity test,” with Musk running Path of Exile 2 from the sky. He named his character “Kekius Maximus,” dove right into the game, and barely spoke a word for almost two hours. It was just Musk, his laptop, a ton of focus, and some extremely unforgiving gameplay.
And this wasn’t some chill test run. He was playing on hardcore mode—where dying means permanent character deletion. One wrong move, and it’s game over. Bold choice, especially while streaming live over airplane Wi-Fi.
The Internet Doesn’t Hold Back
Image Credit: M. Lewinsky-CC BY 4.0/Wiki Commons
The Twitch chat? Pure chaos. Supporters cheered him on, but plenty of others were trolling hard—bringing up Tesla recalls, SpaceX drama, and X (formerly Twitter). Some even pretended to be his exes and coworkers. Musk kept the chat on, reading everything while dodging in-game enemies and, occasionally, dying. A lot.
Each time his character died, he’d reroll and start again. And then it happened—he got wiped out by a low-level boss in the tutorial zone. Right in front of 60,000 viewers. A few moments later, the stream cut to black.
Was It the Wi-Fi… or Just Elon?
Image Credit: Mike Lewinski-CC BY 2.0/Wiki Commons
Musk blamed Starlink’s signal drop for the death, but let’s be real: even a decent connection might not have saved him. Path of Exile 2 isn’t exactly friendly to new players—especially not in hardcore. Still, people online were quick to turn it into a meme, debating whether the stream was a win for Starlink or a warning.
Streaming Is Brutal—Even for Billionaires
Image Credit: Tony Webster-CC BY-SA 2.0/Wiki Commons
Livestreaming anything is risky. Do it live, and things can (and usually will) go wrong. When you’re also a globally known CEO, the stakes—and the heckling—are even higher. Musk tried to make a statement about tech, but all anyone’s talking about now is that poor tutorial boss who sent “Kekius Maximus” into the digital void.
But hey—at least we know the stream worked long enough for us to watch it happen.
