The Mega Millions® jackpot continues its relentless upward march! After no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night – the white balls 8, 24, 30, 45 and 61, plus the gold Mega Ball 12 – the estimated jackpot rolls to $1.25 billion ($625.3 million cash) for the next drawing on Friday, August 4. If won at that level, it would be the fourth largest prize in Mega Millions history.
“There’s always an air of excitement around the country when Mega Millions jackpots soar,” said Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium. “The growing jackpot is a source of entertainment and winnings for players while generating important dollars for the good causes supported by each lottery. We are grateful for our players, appreciate our hardworking retailers, and remind everyone to play responsibly.”
The jackpot has been rolling since it was last won in New York on April 18; Friday’s drawing will be the 31st in this current run. Overall, the total number of winning tickets at all prize levels continues to increase along with the jackpot, and the August 1 drawing produced a total of 4,904,910 winning tickets across all prize tiers.
Seven tickets matched the five white balls Tuesday night to win the game’s second-tier prize. One, sold in Texas, is worth $4 million because it included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 4X for this drawing. Not surprisingly, Texas has had more multi-million second-tier prizes than any other jurisdiction – the state was the very first to introduce the Megaplier option when it joined the game in December 2003.
The other Match 5 winning tickets were sold in California (two), Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Across the country, 135 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Twenty-eight of those tickets are worth $40,000 each, because they also included the optional Megaplier. The other 107 win the standard $10,000 each.
Since the last jackpot was won on April 18, there have been more than 31.3 million winning tickets at all non-jackpot prize levels, ranging from $2 up to $5 million. These include 53 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 23 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
This year started out with six jackpot winners in less than four months – a number far more typical of a full year and indicative of the truly random nature of lottery drawings! The first was a big one – $1.348 billion won in Maine on January 13, the second-largest prize awarded in Mega Millions history. That was followed by three quick wins. The very next drawing, on January 17, produced a $20 million win in New York. Two drawings later, $33 million was won in Massachusetts on January 24, and just two drawings after that, Massachusetts repeated with another jackpot win, this time at $31 million. Then came two more wins in New York, at $483 million on April 14 followed by $20 million on April 18. That was the first time in Mega Millions history that two jackpots have been won in the same state in consecutive drawings.
See the complete Mega Millions jackpot history.
Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has awarded four jackpots exceeding $1 billion – one each in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023; one more will soon be added to the mix. Tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 each; in most jurisdictions, players can add the Megaplier for an additional $1 to multiply their non-jackpot prizes. Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia.
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.
The top Mega Millions jackpots to date:
| Amount | Date | Winning Tickets |
| $1.537 billion | 10/23/2018 | 1-SC |
| $1.348 billion | 1/13/2023 | 1-ME |
| $1.337 billion | 7/29/2022 | 1-IL |
| $1.250 billion (est) | 8/4/2023 | ? |
| $1.050 billion | 1/22/2021 | 1-MI |
| $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 |
| $533 million | 3/30/2018 | 1-NJ |
