Navigating the heartbreak of a missed connection in a video game is a universal rite of passage—even if you happen to be a global superstar. Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye recently gave fans a glimpse into his personal gaming struggles via his Instagram Stories, revealing he’s deep in the trenches of Persona 5 Royal.
The chart-topping artist has been establishing his gaming bona fides over the last several months. While maintaining his status as one of Spotify’s most-streamed musicians, the Canadian star has found time to tour Sega’s headquarters in Japan, conquer Nier: Automata, and even strike up a friendship with series creator Yoko Taro.
Since late April, Tesfaye has been documenting his Persona 5 Royal journey on his burner account, Gene.hackerman. Having logged upwards of 92 hours into Atlus’s celebrated RPG, he’s already deepened several key in-game relationships. His early posts featured Tae Takemi—the fan-favorite “goth-doc”—which immediately prompted his followers to interrogate him about his romantic intentions within the game’s life-sim segments.
That’s when Tesfaye confessed his blunder: despite his clear admiration for Takemi, he had reached a point of no return and missed his window to initiate a romance with her:
Tesfaye punctuated the magnitude of this social gaffe with a follow-up post featuring a classic, melancholic scene of a man aiming a gun at his own head, signaling his utter defeat:
It’s a uniquely humanizing moment; it’s amusing to realize that even someone who walks red carpets and dates high-profile celebrities suffers from the same digital dating woes as the rest of us. The Persona 5 community has, naturally, taken great delight in his misfortune.
“Sending prayers,” one user commented on X. Another quipped, “Whenever The Weeknd drops his next album and references a mysterious woman, we’ll know exactly who he’s talking about.”
Most of the reactions are a mix of commiseration and shared war stories about failed Persona 5 romances. Regardless of which character he pursues, it’s clear that Tesfaye’s association with the JRPG has become a core part of his public persona. His passion for the game has even extended to his tour aesthetic, where he has been spotted wearing a mask that bears a striking resemblance to the game’s motifs, and developers have even publicly acknowledged his fandom.
Source: Polygon
