Why 91 Strangers Picked The Exact Same Powerball Numbers Wednesday Night

Powerball drawing that saw 3, 19, 35, 51, and 67 come out of the hopper minted an astonishing number of millionaires

Last updated: April 30, 2026

1 min

There are at least 91 people in America who are partial to the number 16, as Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing proved.

First off, the winning numbers, which produced two perfect six-for-six tickets, splitting the estimated $143 million jackpot, were 3, 19, 35, 51, 67, and a red Powerball of 15.

But there were 89 (!) other people across the country who became millionaires, as they matched all five white balls. Sixty-two of them won a million bucks, and 27 of them won $2 million, as they bought the Power Play option.

Sometimes there are no tickets that match all five white balls. Sometimes there are one or two. In massive, billion-dollar drawings, there have been instances of a half-dozen or more.

So why did 91 people across America have these numbers Wednesday night?

Tonight’s powerball had two grand prize winners. That doesn’t happen very often. There were also 89 people who hit the million dollar second prize.
According to google, the record was 18 people hitting that prize in one drawing. It was the almost 2 billion dollar drawing when…
— David Fox (@DavidFoxOfEarth) April 30, 2026

Again, allow us to direct your attention to the number 16. Go from 3 to 19, that’s 16. From 19 to 35, another 16. Go from 35 to 51, that’s 16. Sense a pattern here?

We kind of feel bad for everyone holding 2, 18, 34, 50, and 66, if we’re being honest.

Incredibly, this is at least the second time in Powerball history when a particular set of numbers yielded a cavalcade of winners.

Back in March of 2005, one player won the $13.8 million jackpot, but another 110 people cashed in for either $100,000 or $500,000 (depending on whether they bought the Power Play).

Those numbers were 22, 28, 32, 33, and 39.

And why did 111 people choose them?

Because of a fortune cookie produced by Wonton Food Inc. of New York. The five numbers were the “lucky” numbers printed on a fortune cookie shipped all across America. Even crazier: The last number on the cookie was 40, and the red Powerball that night was … 42.

And even crazier than that: The sole jackpot-winning ticket was a quick pick and wasn’t chosen due to the cookie.

Of course, we are all waiting for a 4-8-15-16-23-42 draw, bound to be split by about a million Lost fans.

By the way, the above almost happened back in 2011, when more than 9,000 people won $150 in a Mega Millions drawing that featured the winning numbers of 4, 8, 15, 25, 47, and a gold Mega Ball of 42.

“When will you people learn?” the actor Jorge Garcia, who made the numbers famous, wrote on his blog at the time. “The numbers are bad!”