Bad News for US Marvel Snap Fans: Card Game Unexpectedly Banned Alongside TikTok

Today, the U.S. announced a ban on TikTok, and surprisingly, Marvel Snap, the widely loved online card game, has also been caught in the crossfire. For months, TikTok has been facing potential prohibition in the U.S. unless it could manage to sell itself off. That deadline has now passed without any such deal, leading to the app being officially banned. The reasoning behind this decision seems questionable, especially when other domestic platforms like Facebook pose similar concerns, but here we are. Unexpectedly, this move has also impacted Marvel Snap due to its publisher, Nuverse, falling under the ownership of ByteDance, the same parent company behind TikTok.

The development team at Second Dinner, who are behind Marvel Snap’s creation, appeared as taken aback as anyone. They issued a statement on Twitter expressing their surprise: “Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and can’t be played in the U.S. This unexpected situation affected us and our publisher Nuverse following TikTok’s takedown on Saturday, January 18th. Rest assured, Marvel Snap hasn’t vanished for good. We’re actively working on bringing the game back online as swiftly as possible and will keep you posted with any updates.”

If you try launching the app, you’ll encounter a message explaining that the game “isn’t available right now,” with assurances that efforts are underway to get it back up for U.S. users. It’s puzzling how both Second Dinner and Nuverse were caught off guard by this, but if you’re a dedicated player, it looks like you’ll need to hang tight while this situation gets sorted out.