MapQuest reaches No. 1 U.S. app ranking after refusing to rename Lake Ontario
The mapping application surged to the top of the App Store following its public refusal to adopt Trump's 'Lake America' designation, contrasting with capitulations by Google Maps and Apple Maps.
What happened
Following President Trump's August 27 executive order directing the U.S. geographic naming service to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America,' MapQuest publicly announced on X that it would not comply. Google Maps and Apple Maps subsequently implemented the name change. MapQuest's U.S. App Store ranking climbed from No. 128 on August 28 to No. 92 on August 29, then to No. 3 on Monday, August 31, and reached No. 1 overall on the U.S. App Store by Tuesday, September 1. Sensor Tower data indicates approximately 632,000 U.S. downloads since the order (MapQuest claims over 1.5 million installs across the U.S. and Canada combined), with 56% of MapQuest's year-to-date U.S. downloads occurring from August 27 through September 1. MapQuest General Manager Doug Berger stated that new users are actively engaging with the app, making feature requests and submitting bug reports.
Context
MapQuest's stance gained traction because it stood apart from larger Big Tech competitors. Google publicly explained its compliance as adherence to official government geographic naming sources; Apple did not comment but likely follows similar guidelines. As a smaller, independent company owned by System1 (which acquired it from Verizon in 2019), MapQuest had greater flexibility to diverge from these conventions. The company also maintains other naming positions—it continues to call the Gulf of Mexico by its original name instead of 'Gulf of America' and released a social-media tool allowing users to humorously rename Lake Ontario. This represents a notable recovery for MapQuest, which once dominated the mapping application market but lost its leading position to Google Maps over time.
What's disputed
Sensor Tower estimates MapQuest's post-order U.S. downloads at 632,000, while MapQuest's own statement claims over 1.5 million installs across the U.S. and Canada combined. The discrepancy in figures and geographic scope between the two counts is not reconciled in the source.