MapQuest's mobile app has seen a significant surge in downloads, reaching the No. 1 position among navigation apps in the United States. This follows the company's announcement on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, despite a presidential executive order.
The app climbed to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store's Top Charts for apps (excluding games) and No. 8 overall across both apps and games as of Monday morning. In Canada's App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall by Sunday evening.
MapQuest stated it received "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads, with app usage climbing to 50 times its normal levels. Market intelligence provider Sensor Tower corroborated this, reporting 162,000 total U.S. app downloads during the week of August 24, an increase of more than 10x week-over-week. Daily downloads in the U.S. were up 128% day-over-day from August 26 to August 30.
Doug Berger, General Manager of MapQuest, commented that the company aimed to "give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with." This decision comes as Google Maps announced its compliance with the renaming, updating its maps for U.S. users to reflect the change, while Apple Maps had not yet renamed the lake as of Monday morning.