What Are the Biggest Lottery Jackpot Prizes in History Now That Mega Millions is $840 Million?

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

The Mega Millions jackpot is now at its second-highest prize in history. If nobody wins the Mega Millions grand prize of $850 million on 1/19/21, then the following jackpot will likely top $1 billion for the second time in its history.

The Powerball jackpot is now $730 million after nobody won the $640 million on Saturday. The new Powerball jackpot is now the fourth-highest in that game's history, and it's just 28 million dollars behind the next-highest prize ever won.

As ridiculously-large as both of those jackpots are, if you added them together, they'd still be just the second-highest jackpot for Powerball, and would barely be the top Mega Millions jackpot ever. Individually, they're both still in the top five all-time jackpots of their respective games, though.

Mega Millions Multi-State Lottery
Mega Millions is one of two multi-state lottery games. Here are tickets from multiple states—Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi—bought in February and March. Mega Millions is played on Tuesdays and Fridays. The other multi-state lottery game... Scott McDonald/Newsweek

This brings up the question: What are the biggest lottery prizes from the two biggest games in the United States? Here are your answers for each game.

The top 10 Mega Millions Jackpots to date:
Amount/Date/Winning Tickets

  1. $1.537 billion 10/23/2018 1-SC
  2. $850 million CURRENT JACKPOT
  3. $656 million 3/30/2012 3-IL, 1-KS, 1-MD
  4. $648 million 12/17/2013 2-CA, 1-GA
  5. $543 million 7/24/2018 1-CA
  6. $536 million 7/8/2016 1-IN
  7. $533 million 3/30/2018 1-NJ
  8. $522 million 6/07/2019 1-CA
  9. $451 million 1/5/2018 1-FL
  10. $414 million 3/18/2014 2-FL, 1-MD

Mega Millions is a multi-state lottery every Tuesday and Friday night, and it is one of America's two biggest lottery jackpot games. Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million, and other prizes pay from $1 million to $2 million or more with a Megaplier. Tickets are $2 per line, and odds of winning with a $2 Mega Millions ticket are one in 303 million. For more information on Mega Millions, or to check your past numbers, visit its website.

Tuesday night's 01/19/21 jackpot is worth $850 million, with a cash-value option of $628.2 million.

Here are the all-time top Powerball jackpot prizes

1. $1.586 billion (01/13/2016)
Winning tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee

2. $768.4 million (03/27/2019)
Single ticket sold in Wisconsin

3. $758.7 million (08/23/2017)
Single ticket sold in Massachusetts

4. $730 million — CURRENT JACKPOT

5. $687.8 million (10/27/2018)
Two winning tickets were drawn, one sold in Iowa and one sold in New York

6. $590.5 million (05/18/2013)
Single ticket sold in Florida

7. $587.5 million (11/28/2012)
Two winning tickets were drawn, one sold in Missouri and one sold in Arizona

8. $564.1 million (02/11/2015)
Winning tickets sold in Texas, North Carolina and Puerto Rico

Powerball is a multi-state lottery played every Wednesday and Saturday, and one of America's two biggest lottery jackpot games. Powerball jackpots start at $20 million, and other prizes pay from $1 million to $2 million with a Power Play. Tickets are $2. You can check the numbers for tonight, or any past winning numbers, on the official Powerball website.

Wednesday night's 01/20/21 Powerball jackpot is estimated at $730 million, with a cash option worth $546.0 million.

About the writer

Scott McDonald is a Newsweek deputy night editor based in Cape Coral, Florida. His focus is assigning and writing stories across all topics, from news to politics, business, weather, sports and international news. Scott joined Newsweek in 2018 after a lengthy career of print journalism in Texas, including The Dallas Morning News, where he was a sportswriter, and he's a voter for the Heisman Trophy. He has been a newspaper editor-in-chief and also a newspaper publisher. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. You can get in touch with Scott by emailing s.mcdonald@newsweek.com. Languages: English


Scott McDonald is a Newsweek deputy night editor based in Cape Coral, Florida. His focus is assigning and writing stories ... Read more