Mapping and navigation apps have become one of the most heavily used mobile tools worldwide. Pre-installed services like Apple Maps and Google Maps mean most users rely on them daily without ever needing to download alternatives. What began as simple turn-by-turn guidance has evolved into a full ecosystem of transport options, reviews and recommendations.
Google has been the most aggressive in building out this ecosystem, generating revenue through promoted results, business listings, referral fees and licensing mapping data. The app itself now reaches far beyond navigation, offering booking tools, discovery features, live traffic intelligence and deep local business information, making it a super-app for navigation.
Apple is moving in a similar direction. Its Apple Business Connect platform allows brick-and-mortar businesses to control and optimise their presence inside Apple Maps, part of a wider expansion of Apple’s ads business following last year’s privacy changes.
Alongside these giants sit specialised players. Waze remains a major community-driven traffic app, Citymapper focuses on multimodal public-transport routing across major global cities and Life360 has turned location sharing into a family-safety category of its own, with real-time tracking and driving reports.
Location accuracy challenges have also led to alternative systems like what3words, which assigns a unique three-word label to every three-metre square on Earth and is now used by UK emergency services. Zooming out, Google also has Earth, which lets users explore the world through satellite images.
We have collected data and statistics on navigation apps. Read on below to find out more.
Key Navigation Statistics
- The navigation app sector had a revenue of $21 billion in 2024, an increase of 14.7% on the previous year
- Google Maps was responsible for about 59% of this total revenue
- Apple Maps generated $2.1 billion revenue in 2024, Waze made $280 million
- The US generated the most navigation app revenue by country, followed by China
- Google Maps is the most used navigation app in the world by a factor of four
Top Navigation Apps
| Link | App Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| https://www.google.com/maps | Google Maps | Preinstalled on Android devices, Google Maps offers route planning for travelling by foot, car, bike and public transportation along with street maps, panoramic views and traffic information |
| https://www.waze.com/en-GB/live-map/ | Waze | Google-subsidiary Waze can direct users with real-time traffic and location alerts through crowdsourced information |
| https://earth.google.com/web/ | Google Earth | Google Earth presents a 3D model of Earth based on satellite imagery with users able to explore the globe down to street level |
| https://www.apple.com/uk/maps/ | Apple Maps | Exclusive to Apple devices, Apple Maps provides directions and estimated arrival times. Some large cities can also be seen from a birds-eye perspective with the Flyover feature |
| https://www.bing.com/maps/ | Bing Maps | Like Apple Maps, Bing Maps uses data provided by TomTom to show maps and transit directions |
| https://www.life360.com/intl/ | Life360 | Family focused app Life360 allows users to create circles of family members and track their locations in real-time |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/what3words-statistics/ | What3words | What3words has given every 3 metre square in the world a unique 3 word address to make it easier to find and share locations |
| https://citymapper.com/ | Citymapper | Citymapper markets itself as an urban mobility app, designing route maps with real-time updates and up-to-date ticketing information |
| https://moovitapp.com/ | Moovit | Journey planner app Moovit uses crowdsourced and official public transit data to develop route planning for users, companies and transit agencies. In 2022 it was acquired by Mobileye from Intel |
| https://www.geocaching.com | Geocaching | Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunting game in which users set up reward caches to be found by other players through GPS coordinates |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/strava-statistics | Strava | Originally a cycling app, Strava has moved into more forms of GPS tracking including rowing, as well as stationary exercise recording |
| https://www.alltrails.com/ | AllTrails | AllTrails offers over 400,000 trails for hiking and biking, with maps which work offline and user-submitted reviews and photos |
| https://www.onxmaps.com/ | OnX | OnX Hunt maps food plots, road systems, and entrance and exit routes for hunters using GPS, OnX Offroad provides off-roading maps and OnX Backcountry covers hiking and ski routes |
Navigation App Revenue
The navigation app sector generated $21 billion revenue in 2024, with a majority of this coming from Google Maps.
