Mega Millions jackpot has surged into the game’s all‑time top 10
The Mega Millions jackpot has surged into the game’s all‑time top 10 after no ticket matched all six numbers in Friday night’s drawing, setting up one of the richest prizes in the lottery’s history for the next draw.
Mega Millions jackpot now in rare air
Mega Millions officials say the current grand prize, estimated at $800 million, has climbed to one of the 10 largest jackpots since the game began in 2002, driven higher after another drawing passed without a jackpot winner on Friday. The run stretches back several weeks, with each rollover adding tens of millions of dollars to the advertised total as sales increase across the 45 participating states and U.S. jurisdictions.
The jackpot is offered as an annuity paid out over 30 annual installments, with a separately listed cash option that reflects the amount a winner would receive in a single lump sum before taxes. As the prize has grown into record territory, more occasional players have joined regular lottery customers in buying tickets, a pattern Mega Millions officials highlight whenever the game approaches its biggest payouts.
Friday’s drawing extends the run
Friday’s drawing once again produced millions of lower‑tier winners but no one who matched all five white balls plus the gold Mega Ball needed to claim the jackpot. When that happens, the money in the jackpot pool rolls over in full to the next drawing, allowing the top prize to grow rapidly when there are long stretches without a grand‑prize winner.
Mega Millions is drawn at 11 p.m. Eastern Time every Tuesday and Friday, a schedule that gives the current jackpot two chances a week to be won while maintaining momentum and media attention as it climbs. The game’s format —picking five numbers from 1 to 70 plus a separate Mega Ball from 1 to 25 — creates long odds for the jackpot, but also nine ways to win prizes at lower tiers.
A place among historic jackpots
Mega Millions maintains a running history of its jackpot wins, including the seven prizes that have topped $1 billion and dozens more that have exceeded $500 million. The current jackpot joins that list in the top‑10 range, alongside landmark prizes such as the $1.602 billion win in Florida in August 2023 and the $1.050 billion Novi won in January 2021.
Jackpot history also shows how infrequently the largest prizes are hit, with some billion‑dollar runs lasting months before a winner emerges. The latest climb into the top 10 reflects that same dynamic, as an extended series of rollovers has pushed the grand prize to levels seen only a handful of times in the game’s two‑plus decades.
What’s at stake in the next drawing
With the jackpot now ranked among the richest Mega Millions has ever offered, lottery officials expect significant interest heading into the next drawing at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. A single winning ticket matching all six numbers would take the entire jackpot, while multiple winning tickets would split the top prize equally.
Even if no one hits the jackpot in the upcoming draw, millions of players are likely to win smaller amounts, from the base $2 prize for matching just the Mega Ball up to the hefty second‑tier Match 5 prizes that can be multiplied to much larger totals with certain game options. If the jackpot rolls again, it will climb further into historic territory, potentially challenging the largest payouts on the Mega Millions books.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/lottery/2026/07/25/mega-millions-jackpot-now-in-rare-air/91044915007/