News writer
With 2025 almost behind us, lottery officials and players are taking stock of a year that delivered some of the largest, most memorable lottery wins in history. Across the country, major jackpots were claimed, turning modest ticket purchases into multimillion - and, in some cases, billion-dollar prizes.
The past year featured a thrill ride of record-setting jackpots, extended drawing runs, and high-profile wins that captured national attention.
Not surprisingly, Powerball and Mega Millions saw the biggest jackpots of the year, with amounts climbing regularly up to, and past, the $1 billion mark.
State games are climbing the ranks, too. Life-changing, epic wins rained down from California's Super Lotto to New Jersey's Pick 6, to Texas’s extremely controversial Texas Lotto jackpot this year that brought the lottery in the state to its knees.
Here are the top 20 jackpots of 2025.
1 - $1.82 billion- Powerball - December 24, 2025
This is the second-highest Powerball jackpot ever won - and it happened on Christmas Eve. What a gift!
The lucky winner came from Arkansas after 47 jackpot runs - the highest number of consecutive runs in one Powerball jackpot cycle. The ticket was sold in Cabot, a suburb of Little Rock, at a Murphy USA gas station.
Under Arkansas law, the winner can remain anonymous. In the meantime, the winner is being advised to assemble a team of financial experts and lawyers to ensure they can handle this massive windfall.
The highest Powerball jackpot ever won was $2.04 billion by Edwin Castro in California in November 2022, making this one a fairly close second.
2 - $1.787 billion – Powerball – September 6, 2025
The second-largest jackpot of the year was won by two tickets in Missouri and Texas. At the time, it was the second-largest jackpot ever won in history, only to be bested by the next jackpot on December 24.
Both winners stayed anonymous, but they offered a glimpse into their big wins. The Missouri player said he planned to take time off. The winner explained that he's looking forward to spending time with his wife, who now also plans to reduce her workload as a result of the win:
I'm going to just do me for a year. I'm like a homebody. The perfect day is sitting at home doing what I do – relaxing.
The Texas winner was represented by a trust. Via their lawyer, the winner stated to Powerball:
We are Texas true to the state and its values. We believe in family, in faith, and in the blessings that come through both. This is a moment of gratitude for us, a blessing we plan to enjoy and share with those who are special to us and who serve our community. We ask for privacy as we look forward to enjoying our lives together as a family. God bless Texas.
3 - $983 million - Mega Millions - November 14, 2025
In November, there was a lot of buzz about the Mega Millions jackpot inching up to $1 billion. The streak was put to a halt by an anonymous winner from Georgia who matched all five balls and a Mega Ball on their winning ticket, purchased at a Public grocery store in the town of Newnan. The estimated cash option was $240 million.
This marked the eighth-largest Mega Millions jackpot in the history of the game. The highest jackpot was $1.602 billion, which was won in Florida in August 2023.
4 - $527 million - Powerball - March 29, 2025
After the first Powerball jackpot of the year was hit on January 18, the game rolled over for more than two months. The winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven store located on North Euclid Street in Anaheim, California, scooping up $527 million.
The employees of the 7-Eleven, which earned $1 million in commission, were loud and proud about winning the prize, even sending a video to ABC7. One employee told another in the video:
My god, we got the jackpot! From our store. We have sold the ticket, and we got it. Someone bought from here. That's amazing.
5 - $349 million - Mega Millions - March 25, 2025
A group of players from Illinois purchased the $349 million jackpot-winning Mega Millions ticket in March.
The group, which chose to be known as 'Blessed,' said at the time:
We took a chance and bought a single Quick Pick ticket. We're absolutely ecstatic and feel incredibly blessed. We plan to use this money to do good – this unbelievable prize will truly be the gift that keeps on giving.
The store that sold the ticket, Casey's General in Cortland, received $500,000 in commission from the win.
6 - $348 million - Mega Millions - June 27
Just three months after the $349 million jackpot above, an anonymous Virginia player took home almost the same amount: $348 million. It was the largest jackpot ever won in the state, and the winner didn't pull punches: they went right for the lump sum cash option. This amounted to $155.6 million before taxes.
The winner, who purchased the ticket at This E & C Mid Atlantic in Burgess, told the lottery they would use the money to buy a zero-radius riding lawnmower. Dream big!
7 - $329 million - Powerball - January 18, 2025
This was the first Powerball jackpot won in 2025, and it was a doozy. This time, the winner had to reveal himself: 79-year-old Abbas Shafii of Beaverton, Oregon. Shafii told Powerball:
I am overjoyed to have won the Powerball and plan to use my prize to travel, invest, and share my good fortune with non-profit organizations that are close to my heart.
Shafii may have had incredible luck playing Powerball, but he was unlucky when it came to anonymity laws. Just eight months after he won the jackpot, Oregon passed a law that allowed lottery winners to keep their names and information from the public. Shafii just missed it.
8 - $205 million - Powerball - May 31, 2025
A $205 million Powerball ticket was purchased in Los Angeles, California, on May 31. The win was the fourth Powerball jackpot claimed in 2025 and the second by a California player this year.
The jackpots seem to be growing year to year. In 2024, the lowest Powerball jackpot clocked in at $44.3 million, and the second-lowest was $139.3 million. This is the second-lowest of the year, though it's hard to put “$205 million” and “low” in the same sentence.
9 - $167 million - Powerball - April 26, 2025
This jackpot may have been the lowest Powerball win of the year, but it made the most tabloid headlines.
This jackpot winner, James Farthing from Kentucky, cashed in the Powerball ticket with his mother. It was a beautiful story…for two days. Then, Farthing and his girlfriend (aptly named Jacqueline Fightmaster) were arrested for fighting. Farthing allegedly kicked a police officer in the fray. He was tackled and tased.
But that wasn't the end of the story. As it turned out, according to the New York Post, Farthing had been in and out of prison for 30 years for crimes including tampering with evidence, engaging in organized crime, drug charges, and theft. He's awaiting trial.
WKYT interviewed Farthing, who stated:
I've caused a lot of stress on her [my mom], you know, I've made some bad decisions in life, and you know, God’s been good because I've kept my faith and done right, and something's happened good for me.
The news overshadowed the fact that this was the biggest jackpot in Kentucky history.
10 & 11 - Two $112 million tickets - Mega Millions - January 17, and April 18, 2025
In a rare tie, two Mega Millions jackpots of the same amount were won at different times this year, in different states.
An Ohio player snagged the $112 million Mega Millions jackpot on April 18, while a player from Tempe, Arizona, scored about the same jackpot on January 17. The Ohio win was claimed by a trust. The winner chose the cash option of $49.3 million before taxes.
In Arizona, where the winner is anonymous, the win marked the highest jackpot win ever secured on a lottery courier app. This particular winner used Jackpocket. This winner also chose the lump sum, at $49.95 million before taxes.
12 - $90 million - Mega Mega - December 2, 2025
A player from Union City, New Jersey, hit the $90 million Mega Millions jackpot in early December, and in a way, the winner saw it coming.
Upon claiming their prize, according to the New Jersey Lottery, the anonymous winner recalled the story for lottery officials:
I was up [the night of the drawing]. Hoping for something. Then − whomp − a bird hit my window. I knew something was coming for me, but I didn't know just what. This will allow my family to be financially free, but I want to be careful. I don't want this to change my life.
The winner chose the cash option of $42 million. It's certainly a life-changing amount - so good luck!
13 - $83.5 million - Lotto Texas - February 17, 2025
This is the first state draw game jackpot on the list - and if you follow the lottery, you've definitely heard about this notoriously controversial Lotto Texas jackpot from February.
The winner, Kristen Moriarty, purchased her winning ticket from the courier service Jackpocket. But the jackpot became a source of controversy when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick raised suspicions about Jackpocket, and all third-party lottery couriers in the state. The jackpot was withheld from Moriarty, so she sued.
For months, as the Texas Lottery commission crumbled under the weight of controversy, it was unclear if Moriarty would ever receive her winnings. But in August, she received a lump sum payment, which came to about $34 million.
14 - $78 million - Lotto Texas - November 15, 2025
This massive prize is a tearjerker - because it's still unclaimed.
The second-largest jackpot of 2025 was a $78 million Lotto Texas prize won on November 15, 2025, in Brownsville. The winner has until May 16, 2026, to claim the prize, or it expires, and the money is forfeited back to the state.
The highest expired prize in U.S. history is $77 million on a Powerball in Georgia from a 2011 win. If the player doesn't come forward, they will break the record - but it's not a record anybody wants to break. Texas, hunt down for all your lotto tickets!
15. $50 Million - SuperLotto Plus - October 11, 2025
This was the largest win for the in-state SuperLotto Plus game in 2025, which was won in Westlake Village in October. But more impressively, this was the third lotto win for The Village Spirit Shoppe. In 2021, a player won $10 million on a ticket purchased at the store, and in 2017, a player won $3 million - both on scratch-off tickets. Lightning does strike again, sometimes more than twice.
16. $42.5 million - Hoosier Lotto - March 12, 2025
This $42.5 million Illinois state game jackpot made headlines for its extremely long run: the Hoosier Lotto jackpot had been accumulating since December 2023. That's a 15-month, 125-draw run. The previous jackpot win was $44 million. Drawings are twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays around 11:00 p.m. Eastern time. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 9,366,819, and this anonymous player beat them.
17. $43 million - Florida Lotto - January 15, 2025
A winner from Destin, Florida, struck gold in the state draw game, Florida Lotto, by matching six winning numbers. The winner claimed the ticket and opted for the cash option of $22.7 million. The highest Florida Lotto jackpot ever won was $106.5 million in 1990. Odds of winning the Florida Lotto jackpot are 1 in 22,957,480. The jackpot gets reset to $1 million.
18. $37.37 million - Lotto America - June 7, 2025
The multi-state draw game Lotto America made the list with a $37.37 million win in Tennessee on June 7, 2025. It's ranked as the second-highest Lotto America jackpot of all time, with the highest being a $40 million jackpot won in Iowa in 2023. The game is available in 13 states, giving less-densely populated states a shot at multi-million dollar prizes.
The winner chose a lump sum of $16.8 million before taxes and claimed the prize via a trust.
19. $36.5 million - Florida Lotto - September 24, 2025
Another Florida Lotto win ranked in the top 20 wins of 2025. This $36.5 million prize was won in a Publix in Hallandale, Florida. Remarkably, the winning numbers were all even, and mostly chronological, at 2, 4, 6, 8, 18, and 22. The win came after months of rollovers beginning in May, when a winner snagged $8.75 million from the game.
20. $32 million - New Jersey’s Pick 6 - January 20, 2025
In January 2025, nobody had won Pick 6 in New Jersey since June 2024. That's 63 drawings over seven months. The draw game jackpot had climbed from its minimum of $2 million to $32 million.
The highest New Jersey Pick 6 prize was $48.9 million, won on February 6, 2001.
The $32-million winner beat the odds of 1 in 9,366,819, and purchased a winning ticket at a Quick Mart in Jackson. But we'll never get to know the winner. New Jersey Lottery Executive Director James Carey explained:
The question on everyone's mind is, have we heard from the winner yet? No, we have not, but we want to remind them that a 2020 New Jersey law allows lottery winners to remain anonymous indefinitely.
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