Players shocked as US TikTok ban renders Marvel Snap unplayable
Update: As of July 16, 2025,Marvel Snap has been restored in the United States. The game is once again accessible to those in the region. The original story is as follows:
Fans were left without access to Marvel Snapdue to the US TikTok ban, which targeted the parent company of both, ByteDance Ltd.
As well as Tiktok, ByteDance is the parent company of Nuverse, the publisher of Marvel Snap. The mobile game is therefore subject to the legislation that prohibits ByteDance, TikTok, and any of its subsidiaries in the United States from distributing, maintaining, or updating applications in the United States.
Players took to social media to express that they were blindsided by the ban, with many unaware of the ownership link between Marvel Snap and TikTok. Google searches for Marvel Snap skyrocketed as the ruling came into effect on January 19.
Marvel Snapped
In a statement shared on Twitter/X, Second Dinner stated, “Unfortunately, MARVEL SNAP is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable to play in the U.S. This outage is a surprise to us and wasn’t planned.”
If it was a surprise, why was there an IN GAME notification about it as soon as it went down? You had to program that into the game before the ban went live.pic.twitter.com/nnc7g1qSqZ
However, the statement reiterated the developer’s continued commitment to the game saying “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.”
Twitter users shared confusion about how exactly the shutdown was a “surprise” to the Marvel Snap developers considering the clarity of the legislation which was enacted in April 2024.
Mobile Legends gone with a Bang Bang
Marvel Snap was not the only victim of the cull. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (commonly abbreviated to MLBB), which has the second largest esports scene in the world by viewershipaccording to Esports Charts, is also banned in the US as its developer Moonton is a subsidiary of Nuverse.
Marvel Rivals is now recording in-game voice chat to automatically ban “toxic” players
Marvel Snap restored in US as devs seek new publisher after TikTok ban
Will Marvel Rivals be banned in the USA?
The game, similar to League of Legends, does not carry the same level of popularity in the United States as in East Asia, but the ban still shocked some fans who were disappointed to suddenly lose one of their favorite games.
Mobile Legends Bang Bang got banned with no warning?!😭💔pic.twitter.com/hxO44Y4ffg
Moonton’s other titles include the mobile RPG Watcher of Realms and MLBB spin-off Mobile Legends: Adventure.
After months of speculation on whether it would go ahead, the TikTok ban is now in effect. TikTok hasrepeatedly reiteratedthat the legislation’s call for TikTok to be sold to a US buyer was not plausible. Despite this, YouTuberMr Beaststated that he was preparing a bid for the site alongside investors.Elon Musk was also linkedto acquiring the app as recently as last week.
