Why is Marvel Snap Down? - Tik Tok Ban Aftermath

Image via Second Dinner

A new law has effectively forced Chinese tech company ByteDance to take TikTok and several other apps offline in various ways. And, when storefronts run by Apple and Google removed the apps, Marvel Snap was among those impacted. 

On Jan. 17, the United States Supreme Court upheld a law that required TikTok to separate from its parent company or face a full removal from US app stores and services on Jan. 19. Because of this, ByteDance has now removed its apps from all applicable platforms, making them unavailable to download or update.

In addition to the removal, all of the affected apps have messages popping up for users who already had them installed, informing them that they can no longer use these services. This includes TikTok, CapCut, and Marvel Snap—with the latter coming as a shock to thousands of players when the removal happened. 

Why is Marvel Snap Down? TikTok Ban, Explained

Because Marvel Snap is published by Nuverse, a company owned by ByteDance, Marvel Snap was impacted by the recent TikTok ban and pulled offline for users in the United States. It is currently unplayable for anyone who has the game downloaded and unavailable to download on major storefronts like Google Play or the Apple App Store. 

In April 2024, President Biden signed a bill that stated TikTok must divest from its parent company ByteDance. This was upheld on Jan. 17 following the Supreme Court’s hearing of the case on Jan. 10.

Ahead of the Jan. 19 timeframe when Apple, Google, Oracle, and others would need to remove or shut down support for ByteDance officially, the company has pulled a majority of its apps off of storefronts as of around 9:30pm CT on Jan. 18. This includes TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and more, along with Marvel Snap.

When Will Marvel Snap Be Back Up?

Marvel Snap Spider-Man Card
Image via Second Dinner

There is no timeline for when Marvel Snap will be back online following this surprising removal, though it shouldn’t last very long.

According to developer Second Dinner, this downtime was a shock to the team too and they are already working on a solution. 

“Unfortunately, MARVEL SNAP is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable to play in the U.S.,” Second Dinner said. “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.”

Journalist Miller Rose notes that the sudden outage was likely done in “a genuine abundance of caution” from ByteDance as the ban covers all of the company’s properties and services. We won’t have a solid answer until the US government and ByteDance provide further updates on the situation, though it appears Marvel Snap will not be gone for long.


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