Ticket Sales Surge as Mega Millions Jackpot Skyrockets to $800M

Tomorrow could be your lucky day as the Mega Millions jackpot soars to $800 million, after no one matched all six numbers yet again on Friday.
If the winner chooses to go with the cash option, they will receive $401.8 million.
While no one received the $740 million on Friday, seven players still became millionaires. Six players in California, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire and Texas matched five numbers to win $1 million.
A player in Ohio matched five numbers and purchased the “Megaplier” option, earning them $2 million.
The numbers for Friday’s drawing were 6, 23, 41, 59 and 63 with the gold “Mega Ball” 25.
Tuesday’s drawing is at 11 p.m. ET. Winning numbers are posted on the Mega Millions website.
Tickets cost $2 and players can add the “Megaplier” option for an extra dollar.
Mega Millions first entered the lottery world in 1996, known as The Big Game at the time. The first drawing took place on September 6 of that year. Tickets were only available in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia.
A second Tuesday drawing was added in 1998.
New Jersey joined the game in 1997. The next states to join were New York and Ohio in 2002, when the lottery was renamed Mega Millions.
The lottery continued to expand and it is now played in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are approximately 1 in 302.6 million.
The largest jackpot ever awarded by Mega Millions was $1.602 billion on August 8, 2023.
The second largest jackpot was 1.537, which was won by a player in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.
A Mega Millions lottery player in Maine won the third largest jackpot of $1.348 billion on January 13, 2023. The player was the first jackpot winner in the state.
One year before that, the fourth largest jackpot was given to a player in Illinois. The July 29, 2022 grand prize was valued at $1.337 billion.
The most recent jackpot to make history was $1.128 billion, which was won on March 26, 2024 by a player in New Jersey.
The last time a player claimed the jackpot prize was on June 4. The ticket was bought online through the Illinois lottery.
The jackpot was valued at $552 million.
Prior to that, the $1.128 billion won by a New Jersey player was the last grand prize awarded by the game.
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