Marvel Snap goes offline in the U.S., following TikTok removal

A surprise victim of politics.

Popular virtual card game Marvel Snap has been pulled from U.S. app stores, an unexpected casualty of the U.S. TikTok ban that went into effect today

Snap is developed by U.S.-based Second Dinner and published by Chinese game company Nuverse, a subsidiary of TikTok owner Byte Dance.

In a message posted to social media, Second Dinner said the removal was surprising and would be temporary.

"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. 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."

ByteDance pulled TikTok last Saturday night, following Friday's unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld a law passed by Congress last year to block the social media app over its alleged ties to the Chinese government. The U.S. law would allow TikTok to continue operating in the country if it was sold to new owners via a “qualified divesture” approved by the President.

The PC version of Marvel Snap. Screenshot: Second Dinner, Nuverse

The ban was initially instigated by former president Donald Trump, and subsequently supported by the Biden administration and members of both parties in Congress. Trump has since said he’d like to keep TikTok available.

Users who attempt to access TikTok in the U.S. now are greeted with the message:

Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.

A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok or now.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicate that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!

Trump recently told NBC News that he would grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the law, but TikTok officials said Friday they would be “forced to go dark” without reassurances that Apple, Google and other companies that host it wouldn’t be penalized for keeping the app available.

The removal of Marvel Snap in conjunction with TikTok had not come up.

Snap is still listed on Steam, where it has been available to play via PC.

But U.S.-based Game File readers said in this site’s chat this morning that the were unable to play the Steam version either, after logins using Apple or Google accounts failed. Ine reader did say they successfully downloaded it. On mobile, attempts to download the game currently don’t work.