Single California Ticket Wins $1.269 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot

In the middle of the holiday season, a Mega Milllions® ticket-holder in California has a lot to celebrate! A single ticket sold in the state matched all six numbers drawn on December 27 – the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49 and 55, plus the gold Mega Ball 6. The jackpot is worth an estimated $1.269 billion ($571.9 million cash); it’s the fifth-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history, and the seventh Mega Millions jackpot greater than $1 billion. The winning ticket was sold in Cottonwood, Calif. Note that the final jackpot amount was adjusted upwards from the estimate and is based on actual sales.

“Congratulations to our $1.269 billion jackpot winner from California,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. “What an amazing present this holiday season! At an incredibly special time of year, this is both an incredibly special moment for our winner, and for all the great organizations and causes that benefit from lottery ticket sales around the country. Thank you to everyone who plays. Because of you, we have winners all around the country taking home cash prizes both big and small, and we have educational causes, parks and many other great organizations benefiting as well. Thank you and congratulations to all our winners.”

There were more than 31.4 million winning tickets across all prize tiers during this 31-drawing run, which began after the last jackpot was won in Texas on September 10. These include 65 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 26 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The December 27 drawing alone produced 5,691,299 winning tickets across all prize tiers, in addition to the jackpot-winning ticket. Five tickets matched the five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize; two were sold in California, and one each in Arizona, Missouri and Texas.

Across the country, 157 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the game’s third-tier prize. Twenty-eight are worth $30,000 each because they included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 3X Friday night. The other 129 third-tier winning tickets take home the standard $10,000 each.

Note: Non-jackpot prize amounts in California will vary, as they are calculated on a pari-mutuel basis.

It’s only the fourth Mega Millions jackpot won in 2024, and with only one more drawing this year, odds are that the year will end with the fewest jackpots won in any year since the game began in 2002. In addition to the $810 million Texas win on September 10, a $552 million windfall went to an Illinois online player on June 4 (the largest lottery prize ever won with an online ticket purchase), and a huge $1.128 billion prize was won in New Jersey on March 26.

See the complete Mega Millions jackpot history.

The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, December 31, resets to its current starting value of $20 million ($9.0 million cash). There has never been a Mega Millions jackpot win on New Year’s Eve.

Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has produced seven jackpot wins exceeding $1 billion each – all in different states. South Carolina was the first in 2018, followed by Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine and Florida in 2023, New Jersey last March and now California. The Florida prize on August 8, 2023, is the game’s current record jackpot at $1.602 billion.

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. 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.

Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24; the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

The top Mega Millions jackpots:

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