Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to $1.1bn, Powerball Grand Prize Hits $800M

Friday marked the latest drawing of Mega Millions, the popular lottery game played across the United States. Despite the hype surrounding the billion-dollar jackpot of the game, nobody was able to guess correctly Friday night’s drawing winning numbers which included white balls 3, 8, 31, 35 and 44 and the gold Mega Ball 16. Considering the jackpot survived another draw, it has now surpassed $1 billion.

Mega Millions confirmed that after 30 drawings with no jackpot winner, the grand prize of the game soared to the mind-blowing $1.1 billion. The cash option for the jackpot is just as exciting, a whopping $525.8 million. The next drawing for Mega Millions is scheduled for Tuesday, March 26, 2024. In case a winner hits the jackpot tomorrow, they will be securing the fifth-largest prize in the history of the game.

Currently, Mega Millions is the only lottery game in the country that has surpassed the billion-dollar grand prize threshold for a total of six times. So far, five jackpots surpassing $1 billion have been won across the US and each time it was a different state.

The Lottery Fever Continues

From the drawing on Friday, there were some 2,564,114 winning Mega Millions tickets within the game’s different prize tiers. A total of six tickets received a seven-figure prize for guessing the five winning white balls drawn. One lucky player in Virginia paid an extra $1, securing a $3 million Megaplier prize, while five customers in Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, Florida and California secured $1 million each.

Gretchen Corbin, Georgia Lottery President and CEO and Mega Millions’ lead director, said on the topic: “Lottery fever continues to spread throughout the country.” Finally, Corbin pointed out: “Large jackpots provide entertainment and winnings for our players nationwide while contributing to the beneficiary programs funded by each lottery. We appreciate our players and dedicated retailers, and we encourage everyone to play responsibly.”

Powerball Jackpot Gets Closer to $1 Billion

Besides the jackpot from Mega Millions, the grand prize from Powerball also survived the latest draw. Powerball’s most recent drawing was on Saturday, but no one guessed correctly all the winning numbers.

This allowed the jackpot to increase to a whopping $800 million for the next drawing set later today. The cash option for the jackpot is $384.8 million.

While nobody secured the grand prize from Powerball, five lucky winners won a million-dollar prize each. Guessing all white balls from the drawing on Saturday granted five lucky lottery players $1 million each.