Mega Millions Jackpot Nearly $1B, Powerball Up To $750M For Weekend Lottery Drawings

The “winning numbers” in Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing were 13, 22, 27, 54, and 66, with a Powerball of 9.

We put “winning numbers” in quotes because there was no actual winning going on. For the 34th time in a row, since an $842 million jackpot was hit on New Year’s Day, the Powerball lottery grand prize rolled over — and this time, there wasn’t even a single player claiming a million dollars by going five-for-five on the white balls.

Because nobody claimed the estimated top prize of $699 million, the jackpot for Saturday’s drawing climbs to an estimated $750 million (lump-sum cash value: $357.3 million).

And while that Powerball jackpot makes its way to a cool three-quarters-of-a-billion, Mega Millions may actually hit the full billion bucks for Friday night’s drawing. It’s estimated at $997 million, but those estimates tend to be slightly conservative.

Getting close to the all-time records?

The jackpots for either draw game have crossed the billion-dollar mark nine times before — Mega Millions five times, and Powerball four. Powerball holds the top two jackpots of all-time, $2.04 billion in November 2022 (which some experts believe represented a rare positive-expected-value lottery play) and $1.765 billion in October 2023.

The Mega Millions record is $1.602 billion in August 2023. Interestingly, the five winners when the Mega Millions jackpot has crossed $1 billion resided in five different states: Florida, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, and South Carolina.

The current Mega Millions estimate of $997 million makes it the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever, while the current Powerball figure of $750 million is good for 15th place on the all-time list.

Tickets for either game cost $2, plus an additional $1 to play the multiplier. Both Powerball and Mega Millions are available in all states except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.