MapQuest achieved the number one spot on the Apple U.S. App Store by refusing to comply with a government mandate to rename Lake Ontario.

“MapQuest made the correct decision. After #Trump’s executive naming order, the 30-year-old mapping service posted a map still labeled Lake #Ontario with three beautiful words, “We’re not changing it.” And something extraordinary happened. People downloaded #MapQuest. By today, it had become the №1 navigation app in Apple’s U.S. App Store, while usage surged to roughly 50 times its normal rate.” https://thegrimhistorian.substack.com/p/how-america-got-its-name

MapQuest, which was openly dismissive of the president’s 27 August executive order directing federal agencies to refer to the smallest of the Great Lakes as “Lake America” amid a trade spat with Canada, leapfrogged rivals Google Maps and Apple Maps to top the most-downloaded list, as first reported by TechCrunch. The app held the No 1 spot on Apple’s App Store as of Tuesday morning, the Guardian confirmed. Google quickly capitulated to Trump’s demand, showing Lake America to US customers, while Apple is reportedly mulling a decision under pressure from the White House to make the same change. But MapQuest, a 30-year-old company that bills itself as “the OG” (original) of the internet mapping era, appears to have been rewarded for standing firm. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/01/mapquest-lake-ontario-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The once-dominant mapping app has surged to the top of Apple’s U.S. App Store after refusing to adopt Trump’s “Lake America” name, drawing more than half of its 2026 U.S. downloads in just six days. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/02/mapquest-is-now-the-no-1-u-s-app-after-bucking-trumps-lake-america-renaming/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon