Mega Millions Starts With a Bang on New Year’s Day

RELEASE DATE: 12/29/2018

The year 2019 will open with the eighth largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions – an estimated $415 million ($248.8 million cash) jackpot for January 1. The jackpot rolls after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on December 28 – the white balls 9, 10, 25, 37 and 38, plus the gold Mega Ball 21.

Next Tuesday’s drawing will be the fifth time Mega Millions has been drawn on the first day of a new year; the jackpot has been won once on the day – January 1, 2008.

As the jackpot rolls, there were plenty of winners Friday night, with 1,211,753 winning tickets at all prize levels. Six tickets matched the five white balls to win the game’s second prize. One, sold in Washington, included the optional Megaplier and is worth $2 million after the 2X Megaplier was drawn Friday night. The others were sold in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Thirty-six tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball for the $10,000 third prize. Seven of those are actually worth $20,000 because they also included the optional Megaplier.

Since the last jackpot was won on October 23, there have been more than 12.5 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 27 worth $1 million or more.

The year 2018 comes to a close with five Mega Millions jackpots won over the past 12 months, including a record $1.537 billion jackpot on October 23. Just one winning ticket was sold for that drawing; the ticket-holder in South Carolina has not yet come forward. The other four jackpots awarded in 2018 were on January 5 ($451 million in Florida), March 30 ($533 million in New Jersey), May 4 ($142 million in Ohio) and July 24 ($543 million in California).

The top Mega Millions jackpots to date:

Mega Millions media contacts