“Marvel Snap Faces Downtime Amid TikTok Controversy: What’s Behind the Disruption?”
TikTok was abruptly prohibited in the US today, and an unforeseen victim found itself caught in the fallout: Marvel Snap.
You might be asking why Marvel Snap was also taken offline in the states today, but there’s likely a simple and straightforward explanation: ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, also owns Second Dinner, the developer of the popular digital trading card game. Alannah Pearce highlighted this connection.
Second Dinner quickly released a statement on Twitter. It states: “Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily down in US app stores and cannot be played in the US. This disruption caught us by surprise and wasn’t anticipated. Marvel Snap isn’t going anywhere. We’re actively working to restore access to the game as soon as possible and will provide updates once we have more information.”
TikTok is back up and running, yet Marvel Snap appears to still be inaccessible. If this seems a bit absurd, that’s because it is. It also raises concerns about the future of other popular games in the US that are owned by Chinese firms.
Marvel Snap has been removed from US app stores (likely due to its ownership by ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company) and the development team wasn’t even aware it was happening. This is absurd. https://t.co/hj7Hl3OykeJanuary 19, 2025
Riot Games is owned by Tencent, which means that League of Legends and Valorant could potentially be banned in the US if the government continues its crackdown on Chinese companies. These games are extremely popular, and if they were to be banned, it could infuriate many fans.
According to TheGamer, today’s ban on TikTok also led to other ByteDance games being taken offline, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, One Punch Man – The Strongest, Mobile Legends: Adventure, and Watcher of Realms.
I do not play League or any of the aforementioned games, but I was really into Marvel.