Mega Millions jackpot soars to $640 million

Just in time for the fifth annual National Lottery Week, the Mega Millions® jackpot continues to grow.

The estimated jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, July 18, is $640 million ($328.0 million cash), and lotteries across the country can add jackpot excitement to their annual celebration of the contributions lotteries provide for good causes in their jurisdictions year after year.

The whopping jackpot – the seventh largest in Mega Millions history at the current estimated value – comes after no ticket matched all six numbers in the July 14 drawing – the white balls 10, 24, 48, 51 and 66, plus the gold Mega Ball 15.

The current roll began after the jackpot was last won in New York on April 18, and Tuesday’s drawing will be the 26th in this sequence.

The number of winning tickets across all prize tiers keeps growing along with the jackpot. In the July 14 drawing alone, there were a total of 1,695,070 winning tickets at all prize levels. Four tickets matched all five white balls to win the second-tier prize. One of them, sold in South Carolina, included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase). With the 2X Megaplier drawn Friday night, that South Carolina ticket is worth $2 million. The other second-tier winning tickets were sold in California (two) and North Carolina.

Across the country, 50 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Five of those tickets are worth $20,000 each because they also included the optional Megaplier; the other 45 win the standard $10,000 each.

Since the last jackpot was won on April 18, there have been a total of more than 15.9 million winning tickets at all non-jackpot prize levels, ranging from $2 up to $3 million. These include 23 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 15 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, 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 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: