Collectible card game Marvel Snap has been banned in the US alongside TikTok, but its dev says it 'isn't going anywhere'

The popular free to play CCG Marvel Snap has been caught up in the United States TikTok ban, with players unable to access the game and instead met with a similar message about the takedown as on TikTok. Marvel Snap's publisher, Nuverse, is a subsidiary of TikTok owner Bytedance, but the possibility of Marvel Snap being affected by the ban was not reported prior to it taking effect, and seems to have taken even Nuverse by surprise.

Trying to log into the game on Steam just produced a log in error and a looping attempt to connect to my Google account, but this may be different for players with the game installed before the ban. On mobile, where most of Snap's users seem to play, launching the app presents the following message: "A law banning Marvel Snap has been enacted in the US Unfortunately, that means you can't use Marvel Snap for now. Rest assured, we're working to restore our service in the US. Please stay tuned!"

Marvel Snap's California-based developer, Second Dinner, has also confirmed the news. "Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in US app stores and is unavailable to play in the US," the studio wrote on Twitter. "In a surprise to Second Dinner and our publisher Nuverse, Marvel Snap was affected by the takedown of TikTok late on Saturday, January 18th.

"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."

The fact that Marvel Snap's takedown came out of the blue for Second Dinner and Nuverse is extremely bizarre. It could be that Nuverse and TikTok owner Bytedance or the app stores themselves removed it out of an abundance of caution, not taking risks with anything Bytedance-related in the US until things are sorted out. It strikes me as unlikely that there was something in the ban's fine print that escaped the notice of the media, Second Dinner, and Nuverse that explicitly extended the ban to Marvel Snap. One possibility is that this is Bytedance proverbially taking its ball and going home, putting more pressure on the US government to reverse the ban by removing another popular app, and this one a high-profile money maker for Disney, an influential US media company with lobbying power.

It's hard to see the Marvel Snap ban remaining in place very long no matter how you slice it. There are various rumors that the incoming second Trump administration will either reverse the TikTok ban entirely or kick the can down the road, all despite the ban having been spun up under Trump's initial term in the first place and before it was brought to completion by Biden. Once Marvel Snap is back up in the US, I'd expect to see some form of compensation to players for the downtime, likely in the form of in-game currency.