MapQuest reached the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store on September 2, 2026, after the legacy mapping app refused to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” — a designation directed by a President Trump executive order issued August 27, 2026. Both Google Maps and Apple Maps adopted the new name; MapQuest did not.
The app’s ranking climbed rapidly following its public announcement on X that it would hold the original name. From No. 128 on August 28, it rose to No. 92 the next day, hit No. 3 by August 31 — when it also topped the Navigation category — and reached No. 1 across both apps and games by September 2.
The download surge has been significant. According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, MapQuest was downloaded an estimated 632,000 times in the U.S. between August 27 and September 1. MapQuest itself reported more than 1.5 million installs across the U.S. and Canada combined during that period. Those six days accounted for 56% of the app’s entire year-to-date U.S. downloads, with daily downloads up 123% day-over-day and more than 50 times higher than the same period last year.
MapQuest General Manager Doug Berger told TechCrunch that the new users are actively engaging with the app. “People aren’t just installing our app — they care enough to communicate directly with us — making feature requests and submitting bug reports on social, and in our app reviews,” he said. “Our small team has been working around the clock to build features people are asking for.”
Google explained its decision to adopt the new lake name by citing its policy of updating names to reflect changes in official government sources, including the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. Apple did not comment.
This is not MapQuest’s first instance of retaining an original geographic name. The app continues to display “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America” and released an online tool allowing users to rename Lake Ontario to whatever they choose and share the result on social media.
MapQuest, once the dominant mapping service before losing ground to Google Maps, is now owned by internet advertising company System1, which acquired it from Verizon in 2019.
Source: TechCrunch