Mega Millions jackpot rises to $465 million
There’s nothing like a little Mega Millions® excitement just before the holidays. The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, December 20, is an estimated $465 million ($250.4 million cash).
If won at that level, it would be the 12th largest jackpot in the history of the game! The big prize keeps rolling after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night – the white balls 8, 35, 40, 53 and 56, plus the gold Mega Ball 11.
As the jackpot grows, so does the number of winners in this jackpot run. In the December 16 drawing alone, there were a total of 958,114 winning tickets at all prize levels. They include one big second-tier winner, in California, that matched all five white balls, and 21 third-tier winners that matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball. Three of those included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 3X on Friday night, and are worth $30,000 each. The other 18 third-tier winning tickets take home a $10,000 prize.
Since the jackpot was last won on October 14, there have been more than 12.8 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 29 worth $1 million or more. Those big prizes have been won in 15 different states from coast to coast: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Since Mega Millions began in May 2002, 12 jackpots have been won during the month of December, including a big $648 million prize shared between winners in California and Georgia on December 17, 2013. That amount was close to the record jackpot at the time, and it remains the fifth largest prize in the history of the game. The current record jackpot is $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.
Mega Millions jackpots of all sizes have been won so far in 2022. There was the jaw-dropping $1.337 billion won in Illinois on July 29, a $502 million prize on October 14 shared by winning tickets in California and Florida, and even a $20 million win in Tennessee on April 15. Other jackpots won this year were in California ($426 million on January 28), New York ($128 million on March 8), and Minnesota, which got its very first Mega Millions jackpot win on April 12 with a $110 million prize.