Over $100M Up For Grabs In Both Powerball And Mega Millions This Weekend

Early last week, the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot amounts were running virtually neck and neck, and heading into this weekend, that remains the case — though the prize values have roughly doubled in the interim.

Mega Millions remains the slightly more lucrative option with an estimated jackpot Friday night of $116 million (cash option: $55.4 million). For Saturday’s Powerball drawing, the numbers sit at $113 million and $54.3 million, respectively.

These similar, ballooning jackpots are the result of both lotteries racking up decent streaks of draws without a grand prize winner. For Powerball, the count is up to seven straight since a New Jersey player nabbed a $223 million jackpot on June 10. Mega Millions stands at six in a row since a win in Illinois on June 4.

For both games, this weekend’s drawings are the last chance to crown a second June winner before the calendar turns over to July.

The week’s top prize: a quarter-mil

Not only were there no jackpots awarded this week, but nobody playing either lottery even managed to match the five white balls and win $1 million.

The largest prize awarded in either game this week was $250,000 in Wednesday’s Powerball, earned by pairing four of the five white balls and the red Powerball while playing the 5x Power Play.

The winning numbers for that Wednesday drawing, with an estimated jackpot of $96 million, were 4, 9, 36, 47, and 56, with a red Powerball of 7.

The previous evening, the winning Mega Millions numbers were 3, 16, 27, 47, and 62, with the gold Mega Ball showing 8. The estimated jackpot for that one was $97 million.

By Lottery Geeks’ estimates, about 11.7 million tickets were sold for the Tuesday Mega Millions, compared to an estimated 9.8 million for Wednesday’s Powerball. This disparity can largely be explained by the four-day gap between Mega Millions drawings and the two-day space between Powerball contests.

The ticket prices are the same (for now), at $2, with an option in most states to play the multiplier for an extra dollar.

Both Powerball and Mega Millions tickets are available in every state except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Mega Millions tickets can also be purchased in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while Powerball is available in those two jurisdictions plus 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