2025: The Year That Was In Powerball And Mega Millions Jackpots

As we publish this article on Monday, Dec. 29, there are still three remaining major national lottery draws in 2025 — two of the Powerball variety, one in Mega Millions. So the book is not quite closed on potential winners.

That won’t stop us from compiling this look back at the year in jackpots now. It just means later in the week we may be adding an editor’s note. Or two. Or three. (But the odds favor zero editor’s notes.)

Anyway, the key news story of the year was the change in price point for Mega Millions, from $2 per ticket (with an optional $1 multiplier in many states) to $5 per ticket (with a built-in multiplier), helping create a distinction from Powerball, which remains at $2 with the option to spend an extra buck for the multiplier.

The expectation was that going from $2 to $5 would mean more billion-dollar-plus Mega Millions jackpots.

But the reality is that you can’t script lottery results (well, maybe you can to a degree, but we tend to trust that nobody does at the Powerball/Mega Millions level), and this year, people just kept winning Mega Millions before it could hit the billions.

In terms of billion-dollar jackpots, the final score for 2025 was Powerball 2, Mega Millions 0.

But in terms of jackpots won at any ol’ value, it was all tied up, with six grand prize wins apiece.

Here’s a chronological look back at the full dozen winners (with the understanding that we’ll edit and revise if we make it to a baker’s dozen by New Year’s Eve):

Mega Millions, Jan. 17, $112 million

Just three weeks after a massive $1.269 billion Mega Millions jackpot hit in California to end 2024, another winning ticket less than one-tenth as valuable was purchased on a Friday night in Tempe, Arizona, to kick off the 2025 jackpot wins.

Notably, the winning ticket was bought through courier company Jackpocket, a positive start to what would prove a bumpy year for the DraftKings-owned courier and others like it, particularly in the state of Texas.

Powerball, Jan. 18, $328.5 million

The very next day after Mega Millions hit, Powerball made it a double-jackpot weekend, with an Oregon customer matching all six numbers.

This marked the first time since April 18 and 19, 2023, that the two jackpots hit on back-to-back days.

About a month later, 79-year-old Abbas Shafii came forward to claim his prize — seven months before Oregon would change its laws and no longer require winners to reveal their identities.

Mega Millions, March 25, $349 million

In what would prove to be the final Mega Millions jackpot win before the price point changed from $2 to $5, a customer who bought their ticket at Casey’s General Store in Cortland, Illinois took down the top prize.

The new $5 era was set to begin on April 8, and this score in Illinois just four drawings prior meant that new era would begin with a ho-hum jackpot amount.

Powerball, March 29, $526.5 million

It wasn’t quite the very next day, but once again, Powerball didn’t let Mega Millions hog the spotlight for long, crowning a winner of its own four days later, for a hair over a half-billion bucks — the largest jackpot of the first eight months of 2025.

This winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven near Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Mega Millions, April 18, $112 million

It didn’t take long after the price point went up to $5 a ticket for Mega Millions to crown its first winner of this new era, with a customer in South Euclid, Ohio, snagging what, coincidentally, was the second $112 million Mega Millions jackpot of 2025.

This bit of lottery history led directly to another lottery first: the first jackpot reset to the new starting value of $50 million.

Powerball, April 26, $167.3 million

Once again, Powerball said to Mega Millions, “anything you can do, I can do better,” awarding a larger prize just eight days later.

This one was memorable for what became of the winner afterward. James Shannon Farthing (and his mom) won on a ticket purchased in Kentucky, then Farthing took a trip to Florida and got arrested four days after his big win for getting into a brawl and kicking a police officer who was trying to break it up.

Powerball, May 31, $204.5 million

Finally, the pattern of “first Mega Millions, then Powerball” was broken, with the second California jackpot of 2025 — and, in fact, the second bought at a Cali 7-Eleven.

Some seven months later, the lucky winner still has not come forward to claim their prize. They have until next May 31, one full year from the drawing date, to do so.

Mega Millions, June 27, $348 mllion

Once again the Mega Millions jackpot wasn’t able to build to an overly spectacular amount before some lucky soul claimed it — in this case an anonymous lucky soul shopping at E & C Mid Atlantic on Northumberland Highway in Burgess, Virginia.

The winner did come forward in August but chose not to reveal their identity. They did, however, share plans to use their newfound wealth to buy a zero-radius riding lawnmower. (And, presumably, to buy other things as well.)

Powerball, Sept. 6, $1.787 billion

After a record (at the time) 41 drawings without a winner, the Powerball jackpot reached its second highest value ever before it was claimed on the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend — with two lucky winners finding themselves marginally unlucky not to be the sole winner.

The winner in Missouri came forward first, followed by the winner in Texas, both anonymously, both choosing to take the lump-sum cash payment — which worked out to $410.3 million each before taxes.

Mega Millions, Nov. 14, $983 million

The first billion-dollar draw of the $5-per-ticket Mega Millions era was one rollover away … but it wasn’t to be.

After 39 straight rollovers spread across 4½ months, a customer in Georgia hit the jackpot, earning the eighth largest top prize in Mega Millions history — and, for now, the largest ever at the $5 price point.

Mega Millions, Dec. 2, $90 million

Just five drawings after the jackpot came up a few shekels shy of $1 billion, it hit again before it could even get back to $100 million.

This time, the winner was in New Jersey, doing their lotto shopping at Garden State News in Union City.

The 18 days between Mega Millions wins was the quickest turnaround since a pair of jackpots struck one week apart in August 2023.

Powerball, Dec. 24, $1.817 billion

For the second time this year, Powerball crossed $1 billion. Also for the second time this year, it got dangerously close to the all-time record of $2.04 billion. But for the second time this year, a Powerball winner had to settle for taking down the second-largest prize in U.S. lottery history.

This Christmas Eve drawing surpassed the Sept. 6 winner by about $30 million, though it took a lot longer to get there — coming after a record 46 rollovers.

The massive score went to a single ticket bought in Arkansas, while eight other tickets claimed million-dollar prizes by pairing all five white balls but not the red Powerball.