Maps · Canada
MapQuest hits No. 1 in the U.S. App Store after refusing the rename
TechCrunch reported Sep. 2 that MapQuest reached No. 1 overall in the U.S. App Store after saying it would keep Lake Ontario. Sensor Tower estimated 632,000 U.S. downloads since the order; MapQuest claimed more than 1.5 million installs across the U.S. and Canada.
MapQuest — a brand most people last thought about while holding printed directions — reached No. 1 overall in the U.S. App Store, TechCrunch reported on Sep. 2, after the company said it would continue to use Lake Ontario.
The numbers come from two places and do not measure the same thing. Sensor Tower estimated roughly 632,000 U.S. downloads since the executive order. MapQuest itself said installs topped 1.5 million across the United States and Canada combined. Company-reported install counts and third-party estimates rarely agree, and we are not treating either as the other's correction.
The wider point is the one this whole story keeps making: private mapmakers are not bound by a federal naming directive, and at least one of them found that refusing was good business.