RELEASE DATE: 3/16/2024
The Mega Millions® jackpot takes a big leap towards the $1 billion mark, with an estimated $875 million jackpot ($413.5 million cash) set for next Tuesday, March 19. The jackpot rolls again after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night – the white balls 13, 25, 50, 51 and 66, plus the gold Mega Ball 6. It’s just the sixth time in the game’s nearly 22-year history that the jackpot has reached this level; only five jackpots exceeding $1 billion have been higher.
With each drawing in this jackpot run, there are more winning tickets nationwide as the excitement grows along with the top prize. Friday night’s drawing produced a total of 1,587,100 winning tickets at all non-jackpot prize levels. One ticket, sold in New York, matched the five white balls to win the game’s $1 million second-tier prize. Across the country, 39 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Nine of those are worth $50,000 each because they included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 5X Friday night. The other 30 third-tier winning tickets take home the standard $10,000 each.
While the jackpot has remained elusive through 28 consecutive drawings, there have been almost 21.5 million winning tickets at all non-jackpot levels since the top prize was last won on December 8 with two tickets in California. These include 33 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 19 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has awarded five jackpots exceeding $1 billion – all in different states. South Carolina was the first in 2018, followed by Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine in early 2023 and Florida last August. The latter prize is the game’s current record jackpot at $1.602 billion.
Tickets are $2 each and are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In most jurisdictions, players can add the Megaplier for an additional $1 to multiply their non-jackpot prizes. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each Mega Millions ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold, where the money supports designated good causes and retailer commissions.
Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24; the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
See the complete Mega Millions jackpot history.
The top Mega Millions jackpots:
| Amount |
Date |
Winning Tickets |
| $1.602 billion |
8/8/2023 |
1-FL |
| $1.537 billion |
10/23/2018 |
1-SC |
| $1.348 billion |
1/13/2023 |
1-ME |
| $1.337 billion |
7/29/2022 |
1-IL |
| $1.050 billion |
1/22/2021 |
1-MI |
| $875 million (est) |
3/19/2024 |
? |
| $656 million |
3/30/2012 |
3-IL, KS, MD |
| $648 million |
12/17/2013 |
2-CA, GA |
| $543 million |
7/24/2018 |
1-CA |
| $536 million |
7/8/2016 |
1-IN |
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