Powerball jackpot surges toward Saturday's $856M draw

After 42 drawings, this jackpot became the 8th largest in history.

News writer, Interviewer

Published Aug 06, 2026, 19:05 EDT

No ticket matched all six Powerball numbers on Wednesday night, resulting in the jackpot rolling over to become the eighth-largest Powerball jackpot of all time. Saturday, Aug. 8, players will chase an estimated $856 million or a cash value of $372 million. It's also the 42nd drawing in the current run.

On Wednesday, one Ohio player nabbed $1 million (Match 5), and 20 players throughout the country landed $50,000 (4 + Powerball). There were three more Match 4 + Powerball winners that took home $100,000 instead, thanks to the Power Play multiplier.

Where $856 million ranks

This jackpot is already in record territory. With each draw, the jackpot climbs higher and higher in the history books. These are the largest jackpots of all time:

$2.04 billion — 2022 — California
$1.817 billion — 2025 — Arkansas
$1.787 billion — 2025 — Missouri, Texas
$1.765 billion — 2023 — California
$1.586 billion — 2016 — California, Florida, Tennessee
$1.326 billion — 2024 — Oregon
$1.08 billion — 2023 — California
$856 million (est.) — August 8, 2026
$842.4 million — 2024 — Michigan
$768.4 million — 2019 — Wisconsin

Five jackpots have already been claimed in 2026: $209.3 million in North Carolina, $250.8 million in Arkansas, $230.8 million in Delaware, and $143 million between Indiana and Kansas, plus a $20 million win shared by Florida and Texas. None came close to what's on the table now.

Winners choose an annuity, 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or a lump sum. Both are pretax.

How to play

Tickets cost $2. Pick five numbers from 1–69, then one Powerball number from 1–26, or let the terminal pick for you. Drawings air Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. ET from Tallahassee. Match all six numbers to win the jackpot; there are eight other ways to win smaller prizes.

Two $1 add-ons sweeten the pot. Power Play multiplies non-jackpot prizes up to 10X, though that top multiplier only applies when the jackpot sits at $150 million or under — so it's not in play this week. Double Play enters your numbers into a separate $10 million drawing, held right after the main draw, in participating states.

Powerball tickets sell in 45 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United Kingdom. More than half of every $2 spent stays in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold, funding public programs from education to veteran services. Since 1992, that's added up to an estimated $38 billion for good causes nationwide.

The average Powerball jackpot runs $353.4 million. Saturday's is already more than double that.

Ready to purchase that ticket? Please play responsibly.