Who wants to be a billionaire? Friday's Mega Millions jackpot will be an estimated $1.15 billion, making it the fifth-largest jackpot in the lottery's history. Friday's jackpot is also Mega Millions' largest of 2024.
Friday's jackpot is also the second-largest of 2024 among all U.S. lotteries, behind Powerball's April 6 drawing, which had a top prize of $1.326 billion.
Between Powerball and Mega Millions, Friday's top prize of $1.15 billion would make the drawing the ninth-largest in U.S. history.
The jackpot has grown thanks to an over three-month streak without a jackpot winner. Tuesday's drawing had white balls 11, 14, 38, 45, and 46, plus the gold Mega Ball 3. Although no one claimed the top prize, there were a total of 4,292,338 winning tickets for prizes ranging from $2 to $3 million. Four players hit all five white balls, winning prizes of at least $1 million.
The jackpot has steadily grown since September when a winning ticket worth $810 million was sold in Texas. The Sept. 10, 2024 drawing marked the seventh largest in the history of Mega Millions.
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If someone wins Friday's top prize, they can choose $1.15 billion paid over 29 years or a one-time lump sum of $516.1 million.
The lottery launched in 1996 with 1-in-52.9 million odds. Drawings then had 50 white balls and 25 gold balls. By 2013, the lottery had 1-in-258 million odds by having 75 white balls and 15 gold balls.
In 2017, Mega Millions actually reduced the number of white balls — a first among multi-state lotteries — to 70, but increased the number of gold balls to 25. This has made Mega Millions the toughest lottery to win, with 1-in-302 million odds.
Tickets are $2 each. The odds of winning a smaller prize are about 1 in 24.
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Eighteen states allow winners of large lotteries to stay fully anonymous, shielding winners from the attention claiming such a prize can draw.
