A Merry Time of Year for Big Mega Millions Jackpots

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The Mega Millions® jackpot keeps growing! After no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night – the white balls 14, 22, 48, 58 and 68, plus the gold Mega Ball 6, the jackpot rolls to an estimated $429 million ($233.6 million cash) for the next drawing on Friday, December 16. If won at that level, it would be the 15th largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Historically, there have been some lucrative jackpots won across the country in the days leading up to Christmas. On December 17, 2013, a $648 million prize was shared by winners in California and Georgia; at the time, it was the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot since the game began in 2002. On the same day in 2019, an Ohio winner took home a $375 million prize. On December 22, 2009, $165 million was won in New York, and on December 18, 2007, $163 million was shared by winning tickets in Illinois and New Jersey.

While the jackpot remains elusive, there were still plenty of winners in the December 13 drawing. Twenty-three tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the game’s third-tier prize. Five of them included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 2X on Tuesday night, and are worth $20,000 each. The other 18 third-tier tickets win $10,000 each.

In total, there were 875,187 winning tickets at all prize levels in this drawing. Since the last jackpot was won on October 14, there have been almost 11.9 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 28 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.

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.

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