Mega Millions› Mega Millions
Mega Millions is a multi-jurisdictional game played across 45 localities in North America with a starting jackpot of $15 million. Until January 2016, the game held the honour of generating the largest lottery jackpot in the world, after three winning ticket holders split a top prize of $656 million in March 2012. This prize still remains the second-largest jackpot in history.
Mega Millions is a double-matrix game requiring players to match five white numbers from a possible 75, followed by one red Mega ball from a second pool of 15, in order to win the jackpot. There are eight more prize tiers rewarding players who match fewer numbers.
This Mega Millions data includes all draws up to and including Friday February 5th, 2016. Chronology is used to distinguish ties.
Prize Draw Information:
The last jackpot drawn on Friday February 5th, 2016 for Mega Millions was $71,000,000
The next estimated Mega Millions jackpot is
Mega Millions Numbers (Last 10 Draws):
Mega Millions Odds & Prize Draw Breakdown
Players must pick 5 balls from a pool of 75 and 1 Mega Ball from a separate pool of 15.
|Numbers Matched||Odds (Rounded)|
|5 Main Numbers + Mega Ball (Jackpot)||1 in 258,890,850|
|5 Main Numbers||1 in 18,492,204|
|4 Main Numbers + Mega Ball||1 in 739,688|
|4 Main Numbers||1 in 52,835|
|3 Main Numbers + Mega Ball||1 in 10,720|
|3 Main Numbers||1 in 766|
|2 Main Numbers + Mega Ball||1 in 473|
|1 Main Numbers + Mega Ball||1 in 56|
|Mega Ball Only||1 in 21|
Approx. Overall Odds: 1 in 15
Mega Millions Draw Details:
Mega Millions History
The Mega Millions game has a complex history, which has seen five matrix changes, a name change and several revisions to its prize tiers. These changes might affect the validity of certain statistical information shown across this site.
Mega Millions can trace its roots back to August 1996, when it was launched as The Big Game and sold tickets across six states for its Friday night draws. The original game required players to select five numbers from a pool of 50, plus one additional number from a second pool of 25. Jackpots could be claimed only via the annuity option.
The increased popularity of the game led to an additional Tuesday draw being introduced in February 1998. In January 1999, the number matrix was changed to five from 50 and one from 36, combined with the option of a lump-sum payout for jackpot winners.
The matrix changed for the third time in May 2002 in order to generate bigger jackpots by making the game harder to win. Players were now required to match five from 52 plus one from 52 to win the jackpot.
The fourth matrix change occurred in June 2005, which was when California joined the game. Once again, both pools were changed to lengthen the odds against winning, which meant that players now needed to match five from 56 plus one from 46 to win the jackpot.
In October 2013, Mega Millions underwent another series of matrix changes to arrive at its current format, together with detailed alterations to its prize structure. The current matrix has lengthened the odds of winning the jackpot, but has reduced the overall odds of winning a prize overall.
Page Last Updated: 06/02/2016 08:08:09