2 Mega Millions tickets worth $1M sold in NJ as jackpot climbs to $820 million

The Mega Millions® jackpot continues its upward march through the month of July, with an estimated prize of $820 million ($422.0 million cash) on tap for the next drawing on Tuesday, July 25.

If won at that level, it would be the fifth largest jackpot in the history of the game.

The big prize keeps growing after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night – the white balls 29, 40, 47, 50 and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 25. Tuesday’s drawing will be the 28th in this current  roll, which began after the jackpot was last won in New York on April 18.

It was almost exactly one year ago when the jackpot reached similar heights, ultimately won at $1.337 billion on July 29, 2022. That was the third time Mega Millions awarded a prize greater than $1 billion; there have now been four winning jackpots of $1 billion or more.

While the top prize remains elusive, the number of winning tickets at all other prize levels continues to grow. In the July 21 drawing alone, there were a total of 2,485,688 winning tickets. Eight tickets matched all five white balls to win the game’s standard second-tier prize of $1 million. Two each were sold in Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina, with one each in California and Michigan.

It was not immediately released where in New Jersey the two $1 million tickets were sold.

Across the country, 67 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Fourteen of those tickets are worth $20,000 each, because they included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 2X on Friday night. The other 53 win the standard $10,000 each.

Since the last jackpot was won on April 18, there have been a total of more than 20.7 million winning tickets at all non-jackpot prize levels, ranging from $2 up to $4 million. These include 39 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 20 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, 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! 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.

Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has awarded four jackpots exceeding $1 billion – one each in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 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 11:00 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: