MapQuest just knocked ChatGPT out of the App Store's top spot

Lauren Hannula - Managing Editor

Updated 03 September 2026

TL;DR: MapQuest has found new life after refusing to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America"

MapQuest refused to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America" after President Trump's August 27, 2026 executive order, even as Apple Maps and Google Maps made the switch for U.S. users.
MapQuest's downloads jumped 10 times week over week, with in-app usage spiking to roughly 50 times normal, according to Sensor Tower data.
The app climbed to the #1 free app on the Apple U.S. App Store (ahead of ChatGPT) and #1 in the "Navigation" category.
MapQuest says it's using "the same approach" it took with the Gulf of Mexico rename: keep the names people already know.

You open your map app to check the drive up to the lake this weekend, and something looks off. Lake Ontario—you know, the one that's been sitting on the New York-Ontario border for, well, ever—suddenly reads "Lake America" on your phone. If that happened to you last week, you weren't imagining it, and you definitely weren't alone.

MapQuest is refusing to make that change, and the decision just turned it into one of the most downloaded apps in the country. MapQuest general manager Doug Berger confirmed the stance in comments reported by TechCrunch, a tech outlet that tracks app store performance closely and has covered the mapping wars for years.

The payoff for standing firm has been a real download surge, not just a viral moment. Within days, MapQuest was sitting at number 1 on Apple's free app chart, according to rankings reported by CBS News.

Where did "Lake America" come from?

On August 27, 2026, President Trump directed the Department of the Interior to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America."

The order followed a breakdown in U.S.-Canada trade talks, which resulted in new 50% tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods. Lake Ontario sits directly on the U.S.-Canada border, which is part of what made the rename so pointed.

If this feels like déjà vu, it's the same move Trump made with the Gulf of Mexico last year, when he ordered it renamed the "Gulf of America." Then, like now, Google Maps and Apple Maps both followed that change.

Google Maps updated the label for U.S. addresses over the weekend of August 31, per Axios. Users in Canada and everywhere else outside the U.S. still see "Lake Ontario."
Apple Maps made the switch on September 1, after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Trump had personally asked Apple to follow suit.
Canadian officials have said they won't recognize "Lake America" at all, since the lake is shared water between the two countries.

MapQuest was the one major U.S. map app that didn't budge.

Why MapQuest said "sorry, no" to the Lake America rename

MapQuest's Doug Berger put it plainly to TechCrunch: "We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: Be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they're familiar with." In other words, the company isn't picking a political fight so much as betting that most users just want the map to say what it's always said.

MapQuest also rolled out a tool that lets users customize how place names show up on their own map, so if you'd rather see "Lake America" (or anything else), that option exists, too. It's a small feature, but it's the kind of thing that turns a controversy into a reason to actually open the app.

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How big was MapQuest's download surge?

The numbers back up the buzz. According to Sensor Tower data reported by TechCrunch, MapQuest pulled in 184,000 global downloads during the week of August 24, including 162,000 U.S. downloads, a 10x jump week over week. Day-over-day growth between August 26 and 30 hit 128%.

By Monday, August 31, MapQuest had climbed to:

#1 in the Navigation category.
#4 overall (excluding games), and #8 including games.
#2 overall on Canada's App Store.

In the following days, CBS News reported MapQuest had reached the #1 free app spot overall on the U.S. App Store, ahead of ChatGPT at #2. MapQuest, which launched in 1996 and was one of the first services to offer turn-by-turn directions, is having its biggest cultural moment in years.

What will happen to "HOMES"?

A few things here are still genuinely up in the air (including how Americans are supposed to remember all of the Great Lakes now), so it's worth tempering expectations before you assume this is fully settled.

Apple's rollout details are murky. It's not yet clear if Apple Maps is geo-fencing the "Lake America" label to U.S. users the way Google did, or showing it more broadly.
This is a fast-moving, politically charged story. Given the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade tension behind the order, the situation (and how map companies respond) could keep shifting.
MapQuest's stance today doesn't guarantee its stance tomorrow. The company held firm on the Gulf of Mexico rename, but there's no official commitment on how it will handle future name-change orders.

Should you switch to MapQuest vs. Google or Apple Maps?

You don't need to pick a side in a political fight just to get where you're going. If you'd rather your map app show place names the way you've always known them, MapQuest is free on iOS and Android and worth a look.

Either way, keep an eye on how Apple and Google handle this going forward, since both companies have now shown they'll follow federal naming orders. If your regular map app changes a name you weren't expecting, know that a fix (or at least an alternative) is just a download away.

You can also switch to one of our tried-and-true travel app recommendations, which we've tested on the road and in the air. From navigation to travel planning and fun-finding, we picked the apps that did the most for the least amount of effort.

Lauren Hannula

Managing Editor

Lauren is WhistleOut's Managing Editor. With over 14 years of digital writing and publishing experience, she's developed a passion for breaking down overly complex topics to offer easy, affordable solutions that help make the most of the tech you already have in your pocket. Her work has appeared in industry stalwarts such as CNET, Yahoo! News, and Forbes.

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