Mega Millions Jackpot Almost $400M, Powerball Over $200M This Weekend

America’s major draw lotteries are advertising some nice, big, round numbers this weekend.

Mega Millions, which has gone 18 straight drawings without a grand-prize winner, offers an estimated jackpot Friday of $398 million — and since the estimates aren’t always accurate and tend to skew conservative, there’s every reason to think the public will be playing for a full $400 million up top.

Powerball, meanwhile, which hasn’t found a jackpot winner in the last 15 draws, is promoting an estimated jackpot for Saturday of $201 million, along with an estimated cash value of exactly $100 million.

Jackpot dry spells mean rising prize values, and some degree of “jackpot fever” is setting in again — as evidenced by Mega Millions sales estimates.

Lottery Geeks calculates that about 17.1 million tickets were sold for this Tuesday’s drawing, continuing the steady increase in sales. The previous Tuesday had an estimated 16.8 million purchases, preceded by 15.5 million the Tuesday before that.

It’s on Fridays, though, that the higher sales figures tend to come in, and the last three Fridays have generated 16 million, 17.4 million, and, last week, 19.4 million. The trend suggests this Friday night’s drawing should produce more than 20 million sales.

A relatively weak week

The midweek drawings this past week were not especially fruitful, with only one millionaire crowned.

That came in the Tuesday Mega Millions lottery, in which a customer in Ohio matched all five white balls (23, 29, 36, 61, and 70) but missed out on the $374 million jackpot because they didn’t have 22 as their gold Mega Ball.

Wednesday’s Powerball drawing saw winning numbers of 6, 19, 35, 47, and 57, with a red Powerball of 9, and the most anybody won on that was $150,000 (achieved by three players) for hitting everything except one white ball and playing the 3x Power Play.

Lottery Geeks estimates 9.76 million tickets were sold for Powerball on Wednesday, which advertised a jackpot of $185 million.

Tickets for either lottery cost $2, and in most states customers have the option to add on the Megaplier or Power Play multiplier for an extra $1.

Powerball and Mega Millions are both available in all states except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah (though the latter of those may have lottery legislation coming). Tickets for both lotteries are also sold in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while only Powerball is available in Puerto Rico.

All-Time Biggest Jackpots

Here is a list of the all-time top 10 U.S. lottery jackpots:

1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022, won in California
2. $1.76 billion, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023, won in California
3. $1.6 billion, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023, won in Florida
4. $1.59 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016, won in California, Florida, and Tennessee
5. $1.54 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018, won in South Carolina
6. $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023, won in Maine
7. $1.34 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022, won in Illinois
8. $1.33 billion, Powerball, April 6, 2024, won in Oregon
9. $1.13 billion, Mega Millions, March 26, 2024, won in New Jersey
10. $1.08 billion, Powerball, July 19, 2023, won in California

And here’s the all-time top 10 by lump-sum cash value:

1. $997.6 million, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022, won in California
2. $983.5 million, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016, won in California, Florida, and Tennessee
3. $877.8 million, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018, won in South Carolina
4. $794.2 million, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023, won in Florida
5. $780.5 million, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022, won in Illinois
6. $776.6 million, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021, won in Michigan
7. $774.1 million, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023, won in California
8. $723.5 million, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023, won in Maine
9. $621 million, Powerball, April 6, 2024, won in Oregon
10. $558.1 million, Powerball, July 19, 2023, won in California