I’m pretty sure Marvel Snap was my most played game of 2022. In a year where I lost myself in Elden Ring’s Lands Between, wrapped up Kratos and Atreus’ Nordic adventure, and spent another few semesters with my Phantom Thieves in Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo Switch, somehow a card-battler that released in October may have occupied the most of my time of any game this year. But truth be told, I can’t be 100% sure of that, because unlike those aforementioned games, Marvel Snap doesn’t show us our personal stats, which is both a blessing and a curse.
I’m a sucker for games that keep detailed track of everything I’ve done in them. I love looking back on my adventure and seeing how many miles I’ve run, bullets I’ve fired, zombies I’ve slain, and burgers I’ve eaten. I think this started with me back on the SNES with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which had a counter on the file selection screen that let me know how many times I died on my quest to save Hyrule. But it’s only grown throughout the decades, to the point where if someone like Rockstar, Bethesda, or CD Projekt is going to create a sprawling open world, then I want to know everything about my playthrough… even if some of it’s a bit dark and twisted, like Skyrim letting you know how many bunnies you’ve slaughtered.
My fascination with data also exists on a more macro level, as I’ve kept a series of detailed and ongoing notes on my phone every year for the past half-decade of games I’ve played, movies I’ve watched, and seasons of TV shows I’ve finished. I don’t really do anything interesting with the information, and I’m not trying to glean some greater meaning from it. But sometimes I just like scrolling through my notes and remembering how I spent a bulk of January 2021 replaying the Metal Gear Solid franchise (I’m weird), or how I did a full David Fincher rewatch in October 2020 leading up to the release of Mank (yeah, I already said I’m weird), or how I watched all of Attack on Titan for the first time in a span of week last spring (okay, that one’s probably not healthy).
And it’s with this that I look at Marvel Snap and wish it would be more forward-facing with my personal stats and data. There are basic things that I’d love to know about my time with the game, like how many matches I’ve played and what my win/loss record is. Digging a bit deeper, I’d love to know what my most played cards are, which rounds I’m most likely to Snap on, and which cards could be found in decks I’ve lost the most to.
Now, some of these stats are kept track of on the backend, and there are ways to view them if you play on Android or PC via third-party methods. However, not only do I play on iOS, but I also don’t want to have to jump through some shady-looking hoops in order to check out this information. I mean, one of the reasons that Marvel Snap has become such a fixture in my life over the past few months is because of its short matches and ability to play in portrait mode on my phone — clearly I’m all about the easiest possible experience here.
It’s obvious that Marvel Snap is still in its relative infancy, with a lot of big plans in store for 2023 including artist credits and the ability to battle against your pals, so it’s possible that forward-facing data is in the works. That said, maybe developer Second Dinner is keeping these stats obfuscated from us on purpose. Perhaps seeing the sheer amount of time that countless people such as myself have spent in the game over the past three months would act as a black mirror, giving us pause on how we were spending our free time on a game designed to keep us in its grasp, while I still have an ever-growing backlog to get to. But at this point, I’m fully aware I have a Marvel Snap problem, so at the very least, I’d appreciate some receipts to back it up.
