Marvel Snap is also down due to today in a "surprise" bit of collateral damage amid the TikTok ban, probably because they're both owned by the same company

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Now this is a strange development

Marvel Snap screen featuring an illustration of America Chavez
(Image credit: Second Dinner)

TikTok was temporarily banned in the US today, and an unexpected target got caught in the crossfire: Marvel Snap.

You may be wondering why Marvel Snap also went offline in the states today, but there's likely a quick and simple answer: ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, also owns Second Dinner, the developer of the popular digital TCG. This connection was noted by Alannah Pearce.

Second Dinner was quick to put out a statement on Twitter. It reads: "Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in US app stores and is unavailable to play in the US. 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."

TikTok is back up and running, but Marvel Snap appears to still be down. If this seems a bit ridiculous, that's because it is. It also raises questions about what will happen to other games that are popular in the US that are owned by Chinese companies.

Riot is owned by Tencent, which means League of Legends and Valorant could both be shut down in the states if the US government continues its campaign against Chinese companies. These are immensely popular games and if they did get shut down it would likely anger a lot of fans.

According to TheGamer, today's TikTok ban also resulted in other ByteDance games being taken offline, such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, One Punch Man – The Strongest, Mobile Legends: Adventure and Watcher of Realms.

I don't play League or any of the other games listed above, but I was big into Marvel Snap when it first came out, and for several months after. It's an incredibly accessible TCG and the monetization never felt too predatory either, so it's a shame it's been taken offline. Hopefully, it will be up and running again soon.

While you're here, check out some of the best card games that you can play while you wait for Marvel Snap to come back onlines.

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Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
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I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.