Could the TikTok Ban Affect Marvel Rivals?

Screenshot via Esports Illustrated

With TikTok officially unavailable in the United States following a Supreme Court ruling going into effect, several other apps and games with connections to the Chinese company ByteDance have also been taken down. Now, Marvel Rivals players are concerned that their game might be next. 

While yes, Marvel Rivals is developed and published by a Chinese company, there are some distinctions that make it unlikely the game will be taken offline due to the ongoing TikTok “ban” and related issues.

Will Marvel Rivals Be Affected By the TikTok Ban?

Marvel Rivals Screenshot showing invisible woman blocking missiles
Netease Games | Marvel

As of Jan. 19 when TikTok and other apps owner or affiliated with ByteDance were pulled from app stores and other services in the United States, Marvel Rivals will now be taken down or made unavailable. 

Most of the concerns around Marvel Rivals potentially being taken offline come from it being developed and published by NetEase Games, a Chinese company. 

Marvel Snap was surprisingly taken offline in the United States at the same time as TikTok and other apps due to ByteDance owning the card game’s publisher, Nuverse—causing Marvel fans to worry about the new hero shooter as well. However, NetEase has no direct connection with ByteDance and is not part of any ruling made against TikTok or its parent company.

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The only reason Marvel Snap was affected is due to ByteDance being involved, following the US Supreme Court upholding a ruling that TikTok needs to fully divest from its Chinese parent company. That was not completed in the given timeframe, resulting in ByteDance pulling its apps from US app stores before the Jan. 19 deadline.

Marvel Snap’s developers at Second Dinner noted that the “outage” of the game surprised the team and wasn’t planned. Niko Partners director of research Daniel Ahmad clarified that the developer did know that the game would be affected, but not that ByteDance would “voluntarily” make the game unplayable for users who already had the game downloaded. 

Unless the US takes a broader approach to limit Chinese companies launching apps and games directly, Marvel Rivals will not be impacted by the TikTok ban. 


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