Jackpot Closes In on Half a Billion Dollars!

RELEASE DATE: 1/6/2021

What could be the eighth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history is up for grabs on Friday, January 8! After no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night – the white balls 20, 43, 51, 55 and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 4 – the jackpot jumps to an estimated $490 million ($372.3 million cash)!

January is a relatively lucky month for jackpot wins. This is the 19th January since Mega Millions began in May 2002, and there have been 16 jackpots awarded during the month over the years. They include three of the game’s largest prizes – $451 million on January 5, 2018, $437 million on January 1, 2019, and $380 million on January 4, 2011.

While the jackpot rolls, there were plenty of other big winners Tuesday night, including four tickets that matched the five white balls to win the game’s second prize of at least $1 million. They were sold in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. The New York ticket included the optional Megaplier (an extra $1 purchase available in most states) so it is worth $2 million after the 2X Megaplier was drawn. Fifty-one tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win $10,000; eight of those are actually worth $20,000 each because they also included the optional Megaplier. In total, there were 1,927,049 winning tickets at all prize levels in the January 5 drawing.

Since the jackpot was last won in Wisconsin on September 15, there have been more than 19.2 million winning tickets sold at all prize levels, including 27 worth $1 million or more.

The Mega Millions jackpot was won five times in 2020, with two states getting their first-ever jackpot win in the game: Arizona, which took the largest prize of the year at $414 million on June 9, and Wisconsin, where a lucky winner won $120 million on September 15. Two 2020 jackpots were won in New Jersey: $202 million on February 11 and $123 million on July 24. And on July 31, a California winner took home a $22 million prize.

The top Mega Millions jackpots to date:

Mega Millions media contacts