Want To Play ‘The Last Of Us III’? Win Powerball First

Tuesday is National Video Game Day, which, if we’re being honest here at Lottery Geeks, seems like a made-up holiday.

Well, duh. Obviously it’s a made-up holiday, but this one seems even more made-up than normal. Do we really need to celebrate video games?

But since we’re here, let’s do the history thing.

Gaming started in dusty university labs in the 1950s with riveting digital tic-tac-toe. But the real patient zero was Dr. Edward Uhler Condon’s 1940 Nim machine at the New York World’s Fair — a glorified math problem that somehow crushed 50,000 humans with a 90% win rate. 

The actual breakthrough came in 1967 when Ralph Baer built the Brown Box, gaming’s first commercial system. This sparked Atari to create Pong — basically digital ping-pong that somehow launched an industry. After surviving the inevitable copyright lawsuit, Atari dropped the 2600 and unleashed Donkey Kong and Pac-Man on an unsuspecting world. The rest, as they say, is quarters in arcade machines.

Today, video games are a $522 billion industry, which — for some context — is significantly bigger than movies ($308 billion) and music ($30 billion) combined.

Creating these video games is not cheap. For instance, The Last of Us Part II — widely considered among the most popular, and divisive, video games — cost $220 million to develop, one of the most expensive ever.

Fun game, made into a great TV show.

If you want to develop The Last of Us Part III on your own dime, we have you covered: Just win Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing, which is set at an estimated $216 million.

Nobody won Monday’s drawing, the 16th since the last time Powerball hit, though three players did hit the Match 5, each winning $1 million. Two of those tickets were sold in California, the other in Kentucky.

The numbers were 33, 35, 58, 61, 69, and a red Powerball of 25.

Lottery Geeks estimates 8.9 million tickets were sold for Wednesday’s drawing.

Mega’s slow climb

Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing, the second since the last winner was crowned, will be for $70 million.

Nobody won last Friday’s drawing — numbers 17, 20, 24, 41, 42, and a gold Mega Ball of 24.

One ticket-buyer in Georgia hit all five white balls, along with a 3x Megaplier, and took home $3 million.

Lottery Geeks estimates 4.4 million tickets were sold.

Tickets for Mega Millions cost $5, while Powerball tickets cost $2, with most states offering the multiplier option for Powerball — which impacts any prize won except the jackpot — for an additional $1. Mega Millions comes with an automatic multiplier for any prize except the jackpot.

Both Powerball and Mega Millions are legal in all states except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Tickets for both draw games are also sold in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In Puerto Rico, customers can buy tickets for Powerball, but not for Mega Millions.

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. $1.22 billion, Mega Millions, Dec. 27, 2024, won in California
10. $1.13 billion, Mega Millions, March 26, 2024, won in New Jersey

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. $571.9 million, Mega Millions, Dec. 27, 2024, won in California