US TikTok ban takes Marvel Snap and Mobile Legends offline

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Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap and Moonton’s Mobile Legends have gone offline in the US after they became collateral damage in the TikTok ban.

Marvel Snap is published by ByteDance-owned Nuverse, while Moonton was acquired by the company in 2021 in a deal that valued the studio at $4 billion.

In a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter), Second Dinner said the game was “temporarily unavailable in US app stores”.

“In a surprise to Second Dinner and our publisher Nuverse, Marvel Snap was affected by the takedown of TikTok late on Saturday, January 18th,” read a statement.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Mobile Legends players have posted on X that the title is “not currently available” in the country.

“No reason” to take action

The deadline for TikTok to divest the app in the US or see it banned is today, January 19th. It comes just days after the Supreme Court rejected the company’s appeal to overturn it.

In the Supreme Court’s opinion, it noted: “The Act provides two means by which an application may be designated a “foreign adversary controlled application.” First, the Act expressly designates any application that is “operated, directly or indirectly,” by “ByteDance Ltd.” or “TikTok,” or any subsidiary or successor thereof.”

TikTok itself has also gone dark in the US, despite the Biden administration stating “we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday”, as reported by MSNBC.

How Trump will deal with the matter is unclear. NBC reported the president-elect will most likely instigate a 90-day extension to the divest-or-ban law.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the US Tiktok ban, we asked the marketing experts on our Mobile Mavens panel for their opinions onw how it will impact the games industry.