WASHINGTON — The Mega Millions jackpot climbed to $1.35 billion ahead of Friday's drawing after weeks of no one claiming the grand prize.
Lottery officials said the jackpot continued its streak of drawings without a winner on Tuesday as no one matched 7-13-14-15-18 and a Mega Ball of 9 during Tuesday's drawing.
If you do hit the lottery and win the jackpot, you'll be given the choice of 30 annual installments or a one-time, lump sum payment of $724.6 million!
Plenty of people have won smaller prizes in the lottery game, but no one has matched all six numbers and won the grand prize since Oct. 14. Those 25 straight drawings without a winner have allowed the top prize to roll over and grow larger for three months.
The jackpot marks the third-largest in U.S. history for all lotteries, behind another Mega Millions drawing and a 2022 Powerball drawing. The Nov. 7, 2022, Powerball was the first in U.S. history to top $2 billion.
The only other time the jackpot was this large was on Oct. 23, 2018, when a $1.537 billion ticket was sold in South Carolina.
Although no one matched all six numbers, 6,154,167 won smaller prizes ranging from $2 all the way up to $3 million. Sixteen of the tickets matched all five white balls, resulting in a prize of at least $1 million.
Mega Millions is played in all states except Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Utah, and Alabama. The odds of drawing all six numbers in Mega Millions are 1 in nearly 302 million.
Friday’s drawing will be held at 11 p.m. ET and can be seen on ABC Action News.
