How Elon Musk Spends His Free Time

Elon Musk is famous for working insane hours – he once admitted to 100–120 hour weeks, even taking Ambien to sleep – so it’s hard to picture him with any free time at all. Yet even Musk has ways to decompress when he’s not leading SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, or tweeting to the world. In his downtime, Musk’s leisure list might surprise you. He makes family a priority, finds calm in video games, and literally built his social media to vent.

For example, Musk himself has said that playing video games on high difficulty forces him to “concentrate fully” and thus has “a calming effect” on him. In short, when Musk isn’t sending rockets to Mars or reshaping transportation, he’s often gaming or hanging out with his kids – and sometimes doing both at once. Below, we break down how the world’s busiest billionaire likes to spend those rare off-hours.

In his downtime, Musk likes to:

• Spend one-on-one time with family (especially his young children).
• Play video games – so much that he’s ranked among the best in the world.
• Engage constantly on social media (as he famously jokes, tweeting is how he “expresses himself”).
• And yes, now and then, he posts about space or technology for fun.

Each of these shows up in recent news and interviews, as we summarize below.

Family man at heart: Musk with kids and loved ones

Despite his grueling work schedule, Musk often emphasizes that he values time with family. He’s said in interviews that he wants “to have as many children as I can and be a good father”. In February 2025, for example, Musk flew to Washington, DC for meetings and was accompanied by three of his children, making headlines for how he brings family along.

Modi’s official account even noted that it was “a delight to meet Mr. @elonmusk’s family” when Musk visited with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Musk’s kids even got to exchange gifts with Modi while Dad talked tech.

Elon’s social media feeds occasionally give a peek at these family moments. In late 2024, he posted photos with his mother and sister on Christmas, and in the past, he has snapped pictures of playing or exploring with his toddler son (nicknamed “X”). A 2022 news feature showed the then-51-year-old CEO proudly guiding his 2-year-old around the Tesla (Twitter) office rooftop, calling it “X in beautiful San Francisco”.

Nowadays, Musk has even more young kids (13 or 14 by some counts) and shared stories about building a huge new home so all the kids can live together. In short, when Elon manages to clock out, he seems to spend a lot of his free time with the kids – whether he’s teaching them about rockets or just letting them tag along.

Musk’s public remarks back this up. Beyond boasting about SpaceX and Mars, he’s joked that he’s doing his bit to help the “underpopulation crisis” by having a big family. He’s explained in interviews that having many children is only fair if he can “be able to spend time with [them] and be a good father.” So even though he’s building the future of travel, he’s also making time for Little League today.

Game on: Elon Musk, the surprising gamer

When he isn’t wrangling rocket scientists or board meetings, Musk likes to game. This isn’t a rumor – he’s talked about it directly. In January 2025, he tweeted that gaming is “my one recreational activity to quiet my mind,” calling video games “my strange solace” after tough workdays. Elon unwinds by cranking up the difficulty of a good game. As he put it, if he’s playing an “extreme difficulty” game, he has to concentrate fully on it, which calms him down. In other words, hardcore gaming is his therapy.

And he doesn’t just dabble – Musk plays at a high level. In late 2024, he revealed that he was ranked among the top 20 players in the world on Diablo 4, one of the popular action RPGs. After a Joe Rogan podcast in November 2024 in which Musk bragged about gaming, analysts confirmed Musk was 19th in the world on one challenge leaderboard. In fact, only two Americans cracked the top 20 – Musk was one of them.

Gamers online were stunned – if the richest person on Earth is grinding hours of gameplay, how does he even find the time? Musk just laughs it off, tweeting about how “playing a video game on extreme difficulty… has a calming effect”. Even critics note it’s no small feat to be top-ranked – one post joked that it “would require dozens or hundreds of hours of grinding”.

He’s also tried out new games publicly. Musk streamed the beta of Path of Exile 2 (a hack-and-slash RPG) in late 2024, though that led to a bit of controversy. Some fans speculated he paid others to level up his character because he seemed too good for someone with so little “real” free time.

His ex-partner Grimes even chimed in humorously to defend his skill – on Twitter, she boasted that Musk cleared a tough Diablo dungeon as “the first American druid,” all before finishing #1 in the U.S. that season. Whether or not Musk’s playthroughs were legit, it’s obvious that he’s taking gaming seriously and even racking up achievements worth bragging about.

In short, gaming isn’t just something he dabbles in – it’s his go-to hobby. So next time you hear about another Elon Musk hot streak on Twitter or electric cars, remember it might just be him taking a break to beat Diablo or some other game.

Tweeting around the clock: social media as a hobby

Ironically, Musk’s ownership of Twitter (now called X) blurs the line between work and play. But by all accounts, he does treat it like a personal pastime. Musk has joked that he uses Twitter to express himself the way others might style their hair: “Some people use their hair to express themselves; I use Twitter,” he once quipped in an interview. He also claims (perhaps a bit unconvincingly) that he only spends “10-15 minutes” a day on it, though observers note that he often tweets dozens of times per day.

What is evident is that Musk is constantly engaged on X. He polls followers on new Tesla features, posts memes, debates politics, and even gives unfiltered product updates – all from this platform that he literally owns. Often his most viral moments come from Twitter, whether it’s a random 3 AM tweet or an impromptu Space (live audio session). For example, in August 2024, he hosted a two-hour live audio interview on Twitter Spaces with former President Donald Trump – a mix of tech Q&A and political chat – that drew over a million listeners, all broadcast free via his X profile. It’s not exactly conventional “leisure,” but it’s how Musk hangs out with the world.

Even on holidays, he stays online. One tech site noted that Musk spent the days between Christmas and New Year “getting big-mad online” – angrily tweeting and writing op-eds in a German newspaper about immigration and visas, of all things. The colorful headline warned readers: “Don’t be like the billionaire, please touch some grass.” That sums up how some see Musk’s 24/7 X obsession. In Musk’s case, “touching grass” often means firing off an X poll or rant.

So yes: scrolling and posting on social media is one of the activities that he spends his free time on, even if it doesn’t look relaxing to us. As Musk put it back in 2018, dipping into Twitter “feels like dipping into the flow of consciousness of society”. It’s a hobby that, for him, doubles as a way to stay connected (and entertained) when he’s not building rockets.

A peek at Elon Musk’s daily routine and “me time”

• A night owl with a restless mind

Beyond kids, games, and tweets, Musk’s personal life includes a few more quirks. For example, he’s a known night owl who famously said he can only sleep 6 hours per night – he’s often up replying to messages or reading late into the night. He once admitted to taking Ambien to shut off his busy brain.

• Reading for escape and insight

In terms of quiet relaxation, Musk has mentioned that he enjoys reading science fiction (he loves classics like Lord of the Rings and Foundation. He’s also a fan of philosophical and technical reading, which he sneaks in whenever possible.

• Musical experiments and creative detours

Casually, Musk has indulged in fun projects too. You might recall that he released a couple of dance/EDM tracks online (like “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe” in 2020) – that was him experimenting musically in “free time” (though it was a few years ago). More recently, he’s joked about writing his science fiction novels or even building a “hyperloop submarine” when bored. While not all of these ideas come to fruition, they illustrate how Musk’s creativity spills into personal interests.

• Informal socializing with “the besties”

On a social level, Musk does occasionally entertain friends and colleagues in informal settings. He’s been spotted attending dinners and meetups with other tech leaders. According to an interview on a tech podcast in 2024, Musk and his friends (“the besties” hosts) even share unaired Saturday Night Live jokes with each other just for fun. And if he’s slacking off, he’ll let the kiddos play with Tesla’s Cybertruck in the garage (they love climbing on the seats). In essence, if it involves technology or exploring big ideas, even Elon’s leisure is on the clock to some extent.

• Health habits and travel-heavy “time off”

Finally, Musk does care about his health and routine, even if he downplays it. He’s mentioned trying to eat healthy (though he loves Diet Coke) and said he should take it easy on himself sometimes. But he never really goes on long vacations. Interestingly, one analysis of his private jet logs in 2024 showed that he took 355 flights that year – sometimes to jet off with family or test a SpaceX location – so his “time off” is usually more travel for work than lounging on a beach.

• The Musk version of relaxation

In short, Musk’s personal time is a mix of family fun, high-level gaming, and perpetual online engagement. It might not look like your typical hobby list, but for this billionaire engineer, these pursuits are how he relaxes, recharges, and stays himself.

Key takeaways – what does Elon Musk really do off the clock?

• Family first

Musk has said he wants lots of kids so he can spend time with them. He often brings his children to events – even to meet world leaders – and has shared glimpses (rare as they are) of playing and exploring with them in his office.

• Master gamer

When he needs to unwind, Musk fires up his video games. He’s publicly ranked among the top global players of Diablo 4 and uses gaming to relax: “Playing video games is my strange solace,” he wrote on social media. Even the sometimes-impossible feats in-game calm him down.

• Tweeting as a hobby

Musk spends spare moments on X (formerly Twitter). He jokes that Twitter is his creative outlet, and he’s been known to tweet nonstop – even over holidays. Hosting online chats (like with Donald Trump) and firing off polls has become a kind of pastime.

• Creative projects

Beyond the above, Musk indulges in side projects like music, jokes, or conceptual art. Remember, he once dropped a rap song and mused about living on Mars. He’s constantly mixing work and playtesting new tech, or brainstorming big ideas in off-hours.

Bottom line

Musk’s free time demonstrates more of the same fearless curiosity he applies to work, just on a personal level. Whether he’s solving cosmic puzzles or conquering digital dungeons, one thing is clear: even off the clock, Elon Musk stays busy, entertained, and ever connected to his world.