Mega Millions And Powerball Jackpots Rise To Combined $377M After Winless Week

“All good things to those who wait.” We don’t know if Hannibal Lecter was a lottery player, but he captured the spirit of draw jackpots with that line. The longer that lottery players wait for a jackpot to hit, the more those potential good things build.

This week, Powerball and Mega Millions both kept people waiting, with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday’s draws each failing to produce a grand prize winner. As a result, the jackpot amounts are ballooning.

For Friday’s Mega Millions game, after eight consecutive drawings without a perfect six-for-six match, the estimated jackpot is at $228 million (cash option: $103.4 million). 

And for Powerball on Saturday, with two more swings-and-misses this week bringing the winless streak up to eight as well, the jackpot sits at an estimated $149 million (cash value: $68.8 million).

We’re nowhere near the billion-dollar mark yet, but you can sense the jackpot fever beginning to swell.

Any new millionaires this week?

Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, with an estimated $130 million jackpot, not only saw the grand prize unclaimed, but it didn’t even produce any million-dollar winners. The top prizes were a quintet of $200,000 winners, each of whom hit four of five white balls and the red Powerball of 21 and played the Power Play, which landed on 4x.

In the previous Powerball draw, on Monday, there was one $1 million winner who matched all five white balls, off a ticket purchased in New York.

This week’s Mega Millions drawing, meanwhile, saw some serious runner-up prizes awarded. Tuesday’s drawing, with an estimated $202 million up top, saw five tickets match all five white balls.

One of them, purchased in North Carolina, included the Megaplier at 4x, making it a $4 million win. Another North Carolinian won $1 million without the Megaplier, while two Florida players and one in California also snagged an even million bucks.

Tickets for either draw lottery cost $2, with the multiplier options available in some jurisdictions for an additional $1. Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states (all but Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah), as well as in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while Powerball is available in all the same places plus Puerto Rico.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions grand prize odds are 1 in 302.6 million. In Powerball, the odds are 1 in 292.2 million.

All-Time Biggest Jackpots

Here 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