It’s pretty well known here in the US that TikTok was set to go down on Sunday, January 19th. But, what you might not know is that ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok also owns a mobile game publisher, Nuverse, which produces the widely popular Marvel SNAP under developer Second Dinner.
For those unaware, Marvel SNAP is a relatively younger game, just over a year old. In the Android, iOS, and PC hit, you build 12-card decks with cards featuring Marvel superheroes from all across the comics brand. Playing against other players, players battle their decks with various obstacles and elements randomized by the board each match. If you’re familiar with games like Hearthstone or the fantastic Pokémon TCG Pocket, you likely have heard of it as well.
What happened to Marvel SNAP (and TikTok)?
We’re not the type of site to get into politics often, but the United States recently passed a bill to ban TikTok, due to the aforementioned, Chinese-owned company, ByteDance. Long story short, while that bill can potentially be overturned or delayed, as of this moment, both TikTok and Marvel SNAP are currently unavailable.
While Nuverse nor any of Marvel SNAP‘s social media accounts have publicly mentioned this as of writing, players are immediately noticing the errors when trying to log into the game.
In the error showing up for players, the game says:
Sorry, MARVEL SNAP isn’t available right now
A law banning MARVEL SNAP has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use MARVEL SNAP for now. Rest assured, we’re working to restore our service in the U.S. Please stay tuned!
While this could be temporary, the game is currently in stasis while we wait to see what ByteDance and Nuverse have planned. If you’re outside of the US, the game likely still works for you if it worked yesterday.
While you wait, I highly recommend trying out another fantastic mobile card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket. I reviewed it and it clearly brought the original Pokémon TCG with the Marvel SNAP modernization.
Update #1 12/19/2025: Marvel SNAP developer Second Dinner talks about it on X / Twitter, as well as Co-Founder Ben Brode on Bluesky
As this article was being posted, the developer of Marvel SNAP, Second Dinner, made a post, describing the surprise they had when their game was affected. They are currently working to get their game back online as soon as possible in the US.
In their X / Twitter post:
Unfortunately, MARVEL SNAP is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable to play in the U.S.
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.
– Second Dinner
Ben Brode, co-founder and Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner, also had a similar post on Bluesky. He adds that he’s also hearing VPNs are allowing players to circumvent the ban on Marvel SNAP.
Unfortunately, MARVEL SNAP is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable to play in the U.S.
This was a surprise to Second Dinner and our publisher Nuverse.
We’re actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible and will update you once we have more to share.
Update #2 12/19/2025: Another casualty in this TikTok Ban: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
While Montoon, the developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, has not stated anything publicly as of writing, users are reporting that the game is telling them that it isn’t available in the US currently, according to Shacknews. Montoon is a subsidiary of ByteDance, owner of TikTok.
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