The Mega Millions momentum continues to build! Strong sales pushed the July 20 jackpot higher than originally estimated, but still no ticket won the $433 million prize Friday night. That means that next Tonight’s jackpot closes in on the magical half-billion mark! The estimated jackpot for July 24 is $512 million ($303.0 million cash)! If won, at that level, it would be the fifth largest jackpot in the 16-year history of the game.
While the jackpot keeps rolling, there were plenty of winners Friday night. Two tickets matched the five white balls to win $1 million each; they were sold in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Forty-seven tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball for the game’s $10,000 third prize. Five of those are actually worth $20,000 each because they included the optional Megaplier (available in most states for an extra $1 purchase), which was 2x Friday night.
In total, there were 1,801,687 winning tickets Friday night at all prize levels. Since the last jackpot was won on May 4, there have been more than 14.2 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 26 worth $1 million or more.
The jackpot was last won in Ohio on May 4, when the ABC XYZ Trust collected $142 million. Two other jackpots have been awarded this year – $451 million on January 5 (in Florida) and $533 million on March 30 (in New Jersey). The latter prize is the fourth largest in the history of Mega Millions.
On March 30, 2012, the record Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million was shared by winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland. Just behind that is a $648 pot won in California and Georgia on December 17, 2013. The third largest prize in the game’s history was won by an Indiana family on July 8, 2016, and that remains the largest jackpot won by a single ticket.
The top Mega Millions jackpots to date:
$656 million 3/30/2012 3-IL, KS, MD
$648 million 12/17/2013 2-CA, GA
$536 million 7/8/2016 1-IN
$533 million 3/30/2018 1-NJ
$493 million(est) 7/24/2018 ?
$451 million 1/5/2018 1-FL
$414 million 3/18/2014 2-FL, MD
$393 million 8/11/2017 1-IL
$390 million 3/6/2007 2-GA, NJ
$380 million 1/4/2011 2-ID, WA