Mega Millions Jackpot Survives, Gets Closer to $700 Million

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350 and while millions of players tried to hit the grand prize, nobody guessed correctly the winning numbers from its latest draw. On Friday, two players came close to the grand prize by matching five numbers, but nobody guessed correctly all drawn numbers which were white balls 10, 17, 20, 24 and 54, along with the gold Mega Ball 8.

Considering the survival of the Mega Millions grand prize on Friday, the jackpot is now estimated at the mind-blowing $681 million or $336.1 million in cash. The next drawing for the hefty prize is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3 at 11 PM ET.

In case a fortunate player beats the 1 in 302.5 million odds, they would win the seventh largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions. What’s more, since the launch of the popular lottery game in 2002, 22 jackpots have been won in September.

The most recent Mega Millions grand prize that dropped in September was a $431 million jackpot from 2021. At the time, a fortunate player from New York won the grand prize from the game’s drawing on September 21, 2021. Still, in case a lucky winner matches all numbers on the upcoming drawing, they would be winning the largest-ever prize won in September.

Nearly 1.5M Lottery Players Win Prizes from the Recent Draw

While the jackpot continues to grow, so does the interest in Mega Millions. The latest draw saw 1,445,634 winning tickets within all prize tiers except for the jackpot.

Two fortunate players matched five numbers on the latest draw. One lucky winner from Wisconsin matched five numbers and paid extra for the game’s Megaplier, allowing them to win a $4 million prize, considering the 4x Megaplier on Friday. The second lucky player from Florida won the standard $1 million prize.

A total of 50 winners matched four white balls along with the gold Mega ball on Friday’s drawing. While six lucky players collected a $40,000 Megaplier prize each, the remaining 44 took home the standard $10,000 prize each.

On the other hand, a total of 1,105 Mega Millions players matched four numbers from the latest draw. While 239 of those won $2,000 Megaplier prize each, the remaining collected the standard prize of $500 each.

The last time an incredibly fortunate player won the game’s jackpot was early in June. At the time, a player from Illinois matched all winning numbers from the Mega Millions draw on June 4, winning the mind-boggling $552 million jackpot.