Home Marvel Snap swept up in US TikTok ban

Marvel Snap swept up in US TikTok ban

Marvel Snap, the online card game featuring the legendary roster of superheroes, was a victim of the TikTok ban. While TikTok has come back online, the digital card game remains offline in the US.

While the game is developed by a US-based studio, Second Dinner, it is published by Nuverse, which is owned by Bytedance – TikTok’s parent company.

With this link, the US government shuttered the game. Also caught up in the mess are CapCut, a video editor, and Lemon8, an Instagram competitor.

Loading up Marvel Snap in the US presents a similar message to what TikTok displayed. Despite the ban of the popular game, Disney, which owns Marvel, hasn’t stepped in to fix things. Marvel Snap’s X account has also remained quiet since January 18.

Marvel Snap should be back soon if TikTok is anything to go by

However, Second Dinner has been communicating with fans over the weekend. According to the latest post on X, they expect the game to be up within “24 hours”.

As the game runs limited-time events and paid passes for extra rewards, Second Dinner promises that players will be “compensated for their lost time.” One player in the X replies that they hope it’s better than previous downtime compensation, while another says that they “didn’t ask for this.”

The TikTok ban only lasted 15 hours, with the company moving quickly to cozy up to Donald Trump. On Truth Social, Trump’s social media app, he posted “Save TikTok”. This is even though it was under Trump’s first administration that he began pushing to ban TikTok.

Marvel Snap is an enormous money maker for both Bytedance and Disney. In 2024, it celebrated its second anniversary, and had earned over $275 million. Meanwhile, Disney has a second golden goose on its hands, as Marvel Rivals, a Chinese-developed multiplayer shooter has grossed well over $135 million since its December 6 release date. Marvel Rivals was not banned.

Featured image: Marvel, Second Dinner, Bytedance

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The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech, gambling and blockchain industries for major developments, new product and brand launches, AI breakthroughs, game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to in-house staff writers with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Joel Loynds
Tech Journalist

Joel Loynd’s obsession with uncovering bad games and even worse hardware so you don’t have to has led him on this path. Since the age of six, he’s been poking at awful games and oddities from his ever-expanding Steam library. He’s been writing about video games since 2008, writing for sites such as WePC and PC Guide, as well as covering gaming for Scan Computers, More recently Joel was Dexerto’s E-Commerce and Deputy Tech Editor, delving deep into the exploding handheld market and covering the weird and wonderful world of the latest tech.

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