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You may have seen on the news that TikTok, a popular short-form video app, has now been taken down in the United States of America as of today ahead of a law that will ban it due to security concerns and its ownership by the Chinese Internet company ByteDance.
Along with it, other apps owned by ByteDance have now also been taken down—including Marvel Snap and affecting both PC and mobile versions of the game. Players from the US will not be able to download the game from the app stores and will not be able to access the game if it’s already on their phones (for now).
This is a developing story, and we will report everything we know about it here. For now, if you are affected by this ban:
- Some players are trying to use workarounds such as a VPN to continue playing.
- We recommend you take caution until further news have been announced.
Services Being Restored
Players should now be able to start logging in and even play – there may be stability issues in the meantime. We will now make updates to the following post:
Marvel Snap Restored in 12 Hours
Second Dinner now expects things to be up within 12 hours:
Hey everyone! 👋
We’re actively working on getting our service back up in the U.S. and expect everything to be fully restored within the next 12 hours. 💪 Thanks for your patience and understanding as we work through this – we appreciate your support as always.
Stay tuned, we’ll be back with updates shortly. ⚡
Marvel Snap Restored in 24 Hours
Second Dinner hopes to have Marvel Snap back up within 24 hours, following the restoration of TikTok:
We’ve been working around the clock to bring MARVEL SNAP back up in the U.S. and hope to have it back online within 24 hours. We’ll update you once it’s back up.
In the meantime, global players should be able to continue to play with no issues.
Compensation
Update regarding compensation:
During this downtime, we realize that many of you are missing out on time-based content, rewards, and Missions.
Second Dinner is committed to ensuring that all players are compensated for their lost time.
We’ll be sharing more information on this as the situation evolves.
TikTok is Being Restored
TikTok should now be working for everybody again, and Marvel Snap should follow suit.
STATEMENT FROM TIKTOK:
In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.
It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.
Official Statement
Below is the official statement from Second Dinner, the developers of Marvel Snap. It also appears that they were not aware this would happen and received no warning either:
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, Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner, confirmed that no warning was given to Second Dinner nor Nuverse themselves:
ByteDance, Nuverse, and Marvel Snap
ByteDance, the parent company of Nuverse (who publishes Marvel Snap globally), looks to have also taken down games under their ownership along with TikTok with a similar message.
It is also interesting to note that a while back it was reported that ByteDance was divesting Nuverse, but this eventually did not substantiate.
Shortly after that, a separate Chinese version of Marvel Snap launched at least a year behind its global counterpart with its own card balancing and events.
Why is TikTok Banned Anyway?
A federal ban was due to take affect on TikTok after years of legal battles due to national security concerns, and the United States Congress passed a law in April 2024 to force ByteDance to shut it down or sell it to a different entity.
ByteDance chose to shut it down for now, but 90-day reprieve may take place after Donald Trump takes office on Monday. Interestingly enough, this all started with when he was last president four years ago.
What Will Happen?
There are a lot of political and corporate factors at play right now, but all in all the focus is on TikTok, not the other apps owned by ByteDance. In our opinion, we expect this will not last very long, if not even 24 hours.
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