MapQuest just found a route to No. 1 on the App Store
MapQuest surged to No. 1 after refusing to call Lake Ontario 'Lake America,' unlike Google Maps and Apple Maps.
After being largely forgotten for years, mapping service MapQuest has surprised everyone by surging to the top of Apple and Canadian App Stores. The comeback happened after President Donald Trump announced a bizarre trade dispute: renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" within 30 days. MapQuest remained defiant and refused to go along, rallying its loyal user base.
The company reported a surge in downloads, with over 80,000 iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada on Sunday alone – up from an average of just 500 earlier in August. Apple Play saw a similar surge, with downloads jumping from around 1,000 to 20,000 per day. The service reportedly surpassed 100,000 total downloads on August 30, marking its best day in a decade.
Users praised MapQuest for using familiar names rather than the new "Lake America" designation. MapQuest's general manager Doug Berger said people were looking for a mapping app they could trust, one that kept the names they knew. Despite its long history of being eclipsed by Google and Apple, MapQuest's clever play on the situation has helped it reclaim its former glory.
Written by urgent.news from Mashable's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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