News writer
The massive Mega Millions jackpot just got even higher after rolling over for the 39th time Tuesday night, making this Friday night the 40th rollover since June 27 - the longest run without a winner in the game's history.
Nobody won Tuesday's game
The winning numbers on Tuesday were 10, 13, 40, 42, and 46, with a 1 Mega Ball. Players need to match all the numbers in order to take home the grand prize. Nobody matched these numbers on Tuesday's draw, rolling over to Friday.
Climbing the jackpot ranks
The jackpot is estimated at $965 million for this coming Friday's drawing at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, which comes to about a $445.3 million cash value. It's inching ever closer to $1 billion, and it currently sits between the seventh and eighth biggest jackpots the game has ever seen since its inception in 1996.
The highest Mega Millions jackpot ever was $1.602 billion, which was won in August 2023. The most recent billion-dollar-plus win was in December 2024 in California, at $1.269 billion.
Second and third-tier winners with multipliers
A lot of players are winning lower-tier prizes, but that doesn't mean their wins are negligible.
Three players matched all five white balls without matching the gold Mega Ball, earning them $1 million each. However, with the new automatic multiplier instituted by Mega Millions in April, they're taking home much more.
- An Arizona Lottery winner's ticket was automatically multiplied by five, giving them $5 million.
- A winner in Central Iowa and a winner in New York took home $3 million after their wins were multiplied by three.
- In third place, 27 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball, earning them $20,000 each.
- Two players from California won the 5X multiplier, earning them $100,000 each.
- Two players from Illinois and Missouri won the 4X multiplier, earning them $80,000.
- Eleven players won a 3X multiplier in California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. They each won $60,000.
- Twelve of the third-tier tickets had a 2X multiplier - they hail from Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. They all won $40,000.
Enhanced prizes and odds
In April, Mega Millions enhanced its lower-tier prizes, adding the automatic multipliers.
In this 39-drawing run alone, there have been $316 million in prizes awarded, including 20 second-tier prizes of up to $5 million and 299 third-tier winning tickets, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 in 40 states.
Thanks to the changes, the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot were raised marginally from 1 in 302,575,350 to 1 in 290,472,336, while the odds of winning any prize increased from 1 in 24 to 1 in 23.
Individual ticket prices were raised from $2 to $5 for consumers, too, raising a lot of eyebrows as to whether or not players would continue to flock to Mega Millions after April. The game needed a long jackpot run like this one to prove the value of the changes. It may cost more, but there are more and bigger winners.
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