When celebrities aren’t attending high profile events like the Mayweather vs McGregor fight – eyeing up ​​high profile fights potential revenues – fashion galas, film premieres and other headlining grabbing occasions, they like to kick back and relax just like everyone else.

It’s sometimes difficult to know which celebrities have a secret penchant for gaming since they often do not publicly share this information. And when celebrities game online, they’re sure to use an alias so as to keep their real identity a secret.

Occasionally, however, during an interview or other candid moment, celebs are known to let slip their interest in gaming and might even divulge their favourite titles at the minute. We explore which celebrities are rumoured to be avid joystick twiddlers in their spare time.

Vin Diesel

Mark Sinclair, known professionally as Vin Diesel is famous worldwide for his role as Dominic Toretto in Fast & Furious, the success of these films has resulted in it ranking well among these high profile franchises potential revenues. He’s also the voice of Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Diesel is known to be a gamer, he has been vocal about his love for video games, both in interviews and on social media. 

The California native is a self-proclaimed fan of the World of Warcraft series and the Dungeons and Dragons games. He also has his own gaming company, Tigon Studios, which has developed games such as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay – a movie franchise in which he played the protagonist.

He even once said in an interview: “I always thought that if I could do anything in the world, I would make video games.”

Henry Cavill

British actor Henry Cavill is best known for his role as Charles Brandon in The Tudors, Superman in the DC Extended Universe and Geralt in the Netflix series The Witcher (which coincidentally also happens to be adapted from a successful gaming and literary franchise).

Cavill might be the most hardcore gamer on this list, routinely dropping nuggets of information into interviews that only the most avid fans would be aware of. He has enjoyed playing fantasy RPGs since he was a kid, preparing for his role in the Witcher by completing the game in its entirety twice and even built his own custom gaming PC.

Mila Kunis

The Ukrainian American actress known for her roles in That 70s Show, the Academy Award winning Black Swan and also for being the voice of Meg in the high profile animated series Family Guy. She is a known gamer and has even lent her voice to a character in the gaming franchise Saints Row.

In an interview promoting her role in the 2015 movie Jupiter Ascending, she derailed the conversation to discuss an upcoming World of Warcraft movie and which aspect of the lore they’d focus on. WoW is a game that Kunis has admitted she once needed to quit entirely due to how much time she was spending on it.

December 2020 Kunis played the viral social deduction game, Among Us live on Twitch with her husband Ashton Kutcher for a children’s charity event .

Drake

When not jet setting around the globe on sellout stadium world tours, Drake aka Aubrey Drake Graham has been vocal about his love for video games.  The Canadian rapper ‘broke’ Twitch (the leading game streaming website) back in March 2018 by playing Fortnite with gaming superstar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins.

The pair attracted a record breaking 600,000 viewers to sign in concurrently and witness them try and dominate the popular battle royale title. Drake has also streamed himself playing the first person shooter Call of Duty on Twitch, and even took part in a tournament for the game in 2019. An Instagram story in 202 showed Drake playing the Playstation title God of War.

Ronda Rousey

The retired UFC fighter and actress is also an outspoken and proud gamer. The American wrestler, like many others on this list, has talked about her formative experiences with World of Warcraft and she even cosplayed as a Death Knight character from the game. 

Rousey is a fan of the beat ’em up genre expressing that Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter are some of her favourite games. Overwatch also gets the thumbs up from the judoka and, again, she chose to cosplay as one of the characters, Tracer, for several conventions and events.

Deadmau5

Deadmau5, real name Joel Thomas Zimmerman, is a Canadian electronic musician and DJ most recognisable behind a giant mouse mask. Zimmerman is a known gamer mentioning in interviews that he enjoys playing games such as Minecraft, World of Warcraft and Rocket League.

He has also been known to incorporate gaming references in his music, such as in his track “Some Chords” which features a sample from the game, Duke Nukem 3D. It seems that gaming is one of his  primary means of unwinding and he has participated in several gaming events and tournaments.

Next time you fire up your console, you never know, that quiet player in the lobby could be your favourite star!