Which jackpot has been won more times, Powerball or Mega Millions?
Both Powerball and Mega Millions have produced many multi-millionaires, and more than 600 combined jackpots have been won in the two lotteries.
Both the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries have churned out multiple multi-millionaires, and even gave out a handful of billion-dollar prizes. Powerball has almost twice the number of jackpot winners than Mega Millions, but that’s not because the people who buy its tickets are luckier.
First of all, Powerball has three draws every week, held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, while Mega Millions only has two, which take place on Tuesdays and Fridays. The draw schedule for both is 11 p.m. ET.
Powerball has also been around longer, with its first draw launched more than 30 years ago in 1992. The. First Mega Millions drawing was held 10 years after that, in 2002.
READ ALSO: Mega Millions prize breakdown
Which jackpot has been won more times, Powerball or Mega Millions?
Since it was created, Powerball has had 406 jackpot winners, compared to only 214 for Mega Millions.
Both lotteries have delivered jackpots of more than $1 billion on multiple occasions.
READ ALSO: How many numbers do you need to win a prize in Powerball?
What are the biggest Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots?
Between the two lotteries, six jackpots of more than a billion dollars have been produced. However, the winners did not necessarily become billionaires, because they often chose the cash option, which ended up with higher amounts of taxes to pay.
The biggest jackpot was handed out by Powerball, which drew a single-ticket winner in California for a $2.04 billion prize in November 2022.
Due to these enormous amounts, more and more people are buying tickets to the contest, even though they are repeatedly told they have higher chances of becoming an NBA player than winning the lottery. The possibility of winning billions, no matter how minuscule, is enough motivation to buy tickets, which just cost a couple of bucks after all.
Here are the 10 biggest US lottery jackpots of all time.
JACKPOT | CASH VALUE (after taxes) | GAME | DATE |
---|---|---|---|
$2.04 billion | $997.6 million | Powerball | Nov. 7, 2022 |
$1.586.4 billion | $983.5 million | Powerball | Jan. 13, 2016 |
$1.537 billion | $877.8 million | Mega Millions | Oct. 23, 2018 |
$1.350 billion | $724.6 million | Mega Millions | Jan. 13, 2023 |
$1.337 billion | $780.5 million | Mega Millions | July 29, 2022 |
$1.050 billion | $776.6 million | Mega Millions | Jan. 22, 2021 |
$768.4 million | $477 million | Powerball | Mar. 27, 2019 |
$758.7 million | $480.5 million | Powerball | Aug. 23, 2017 |
$754.6 million | $407.2 million | Powerball | Feb. 6, 2023 |
$731.1 million | $546.8 million | Powerball | Jan. 20, 2021 |