TikTok was temporarily banned in the US today, and an unexpected target got caught in the crossfire: Marvel Snap.
You may be wondering why Marvel Snap also went offline in the states today, but there’s likely a quick and simple answer: ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, also owns Second Dinner, the developer of the popular digital TCG. This connection was noted by Alannah Pearce.
Second Dinner was quick to put out a statement on Twitter. It reads: “Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in US app stores and is unavailable to play in the US. This outage is a surprise to us and wasn’t planned. Marvel Snap isn’t going anywhere. We’re actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible and will update you once we have more to share.”
TikTok is back up and running, but Marvel Snap appears to still be down. If this seems a bit ridiculous, that’s because it is. It also raises questions about what will happen to other games that are popular in the US that are owned by Chinese companies.
Marvel Snap has been removed from US app stores (likely because it’s also owned by ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company) and the dev team didn’t even know it was coming. Holy shit. https://t.co/hj7Hl3OykeJanuary 19, 2025
Riot is owned by Tencent, which means League of Legends and Valorant could both be shut down in the states if the US government continues its campaign against Chinese companies. These are immensely popular games and if they did get shut down it would likely anger a lot of fans.
According to TheGamer, today’s TikTok ban also resulted in other ByteDance games being taken offline, such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, One Punch Man – The Strongest, Mobile Legends: Adventure and Watcher of Realms.
I don’t play League or any of the other games listed above, but I was big into Marvel Snap when it first came out, and for several months after. It’s an incredibly accessible TCG and the monetization never felt too predatory either, so it’s a shame it’s been taken offline. Hopefully, it will be up and running again soon.
While you’re here, check out some of the best card games that you can play while you wait for Marvel Snap to come back onlines.