Powerball and Mega Millions both top $500 million as weekend draws approach

ORLANDO, FL — Apr 24, 2026

Both Powerball and Mega Millions are offering nine-figure jackpots heading into the weekend, with Powerball climbing toward $550 million and Mega Millions sitting at $510 million after weeks of rollover streaks that have kept ticket sales brisk across the country. Neither game has crowned a jackpot winner since early March, pushing both into the kind of sustained growth that occasionally catches national attention.

The dual surge matters because it's rare for both multi-state lotteries to hit this threshold simultaneously. Powerball's next drawing is Saturday at 11 p.m. ET, with Mega Millions following on Friday night. Combined, the two games are offering more than $1 billion in advertised annuity prizes across their respective jackpot tiers — a figure that typically doesn't materialize unless one or both games have been rolling for at least a month without a major winner.

The numbers behind this weekend's draw

Powerball's advertised jackpot stands at approximately $547 million for Saturday's drawing, with a cash-value option of roughly $266 million, depending on prevailing interest rates when the jackpot is claimed. The game has rolled over 34 consecutive times since a ticket sold in Pennsylvania won $206 million on March 5. That's a substantial streak but not historically unusual — Powerball has seen rollover runs of 40 or more draws at least twice in the past five years.

Mega Millions' jackpot sits at $510 million for Friday's draw, with an estimated cash option around $250 million. The game has seen 28 consecutive rollovers since a Missouri player won $1.122 billion on March 7. While a half-billion-dollar jackpot commands attention, it trails the all-time record of $1.537 billion won in October 2023, when a California ticket claimed the largest Mega Millions prize ever.

Both jackpots have grown roughly $15 million to $20 million per rollover, reflecting stable ticket sales across the participating states. That growth rate suggests neither game is near the explosive acceleration that tends to happen when jackpots top $750 million or $1 billion — the threshold where casual players and media attention combine to drive exponential sales.

Historical context: how these compare to past streaks

A $547 million Powerball jackpot ranks in the top 20 largest ever offered but is modest by recent standards. The game's record, $2.04 billion, was hit in November 2022. More recent major rollover streaks have produced jackpots exceeding $700 million: in 2023, the game hit $825 million and $842 million in separate stretches. This weekend's Saturday draw, at $547 million, is closer to a routine late-rollover number than a headline-grabbing anomaly.

Mega Millions' $510 million also sits well below its record of $1.537 billion. The game hit $720 million in February 2024 and $688 million in June 2025. A half-billion-dollar jackpot is genuinely notable — it cracks the top 25 largest Mega Millions jackpots on record — but the trajectory suggests neither game is on an explosive growth path that would typically generate secondary headlines or a spike in out-of-state ticket sales.

That said, the combination of two nine-figure jackpots in the same weekend is rare enough to register with regular players. Most weeks see one major game above $400 million while the other sits below $100 million. This weekend reverses that pattern.

Why these rollovers persisted

The odds of hitting the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338. The odds of hitting Mega Millions are 1 in 290,472,336. Those numbers are effectively identical, and they mean that on any given drawing, a jackpot winner is not expected. Over dozens of consecutive draws, the absence of a winner is the default outcome, not an anomaly.

"The probability of any individual ticket winning the jackpot is extremely small," the Multi-State Lottery Association states in its official Powerball game documentation. "The likelihood that the jackpot will roll over multiple times in a row is simply a mathematical function of those odds, not an indication of unusual play patterns or increased likelihood of a future winner."

What does shift during extended rollover streaks is ticket sales. When a jackpot reaches $400 million or higher, casual players who do not normally buy lottery tickets often enter the game. This increased volume does eventually produce a winner — it always does — but the timing is unpredictable. A $500 million jackpot might see 50 million tickets sold, or it might see 200 million, depending on media coverage, word-of-mouth, and the specific state-by-state economy.

Both Powerball and Mega Millions have mechanisms designed to eventually close out a rollover streak. If neither game produces a jackpot winner by a specified threshold, the funds roll down to secondary prize tiers. However, neither game is currently scheduled to hit that point, meaning both will continue rolling unless a player matches all five white balls and the bonus ball (or Mega Ball).

What happens if someone wins this weekend

A Saturday Powerball jackpot winner would claim either the $547 million annuity, paid out over 30 years, or the $266 million lump sum cash option, claimed immediately. Federal withholding would take approximately 24 percent, or roughly $64 million from the cash option; state taxes vary widely depending on where the ticket was sold. A California or New York winner, for instance, would owe state income tax on top of federal, bringing total tax liability to 37 percent or higher. A Florida, Texas, or Washington winner would owe federal withholding but no state income tax.

The same math applies to Mega Millions. A Friday night winner with a $510 million jackpot would have roughly $250 million in the cash option, subject to the same federal and state withholding rules. The winner's state of residence determines the final net amount — not the state where the ticket was purchased, though a few states offer prize-claims anonymity, meaning the winner's identity need not be publicly disclosed.

Historical data shows that about two-thirds of jackpot winners choose the cash option over the annuity, according to past MUSL and Mega Millions announcements. That preference has grown over time as interest rates have risen, making the upfront lump sum more attractive relative to the 30-year annuity payments.

The weekend outlook and beyond

If both games roll over again after this weekend's drawings, Powerball's jackpot could approach $600 million by the Wednesday, April 30 draw. Mega Millions would likely be near or above $550 million by its next Friday appearance. At that level, both games would be entering the territory where national media coverage intensifies and ticket sales from non-traditional players surge.

The broader pattern worth watching: two months of sustained rollovers across both games typically precede a jackpot win. It's not a prediction — it's a mathematical inevitability. Billions of tickets will be sold across dozens of drawings before either game hits a jackpot winner. When that happens, the streak will end abruptly and both games will reset to their starting jackpots of $20 million.

For now, both Powerball and Mega Millions sit in the rare position of offering genuine headline numbers at the same moment. That alignment won't last — it never does. By early May, odds favor at least one game returning to more modest jackpot ranges while the other possibly continues rolling. But this weekend, for the first time in several weeks, both games are offering the kind of nine-figure stakes that make lottery play briefly feel like something other than a statistical afterthought.

Sources

• Multi-State Lottery Association Powerball game rules and jackpot announcements: powerball.com
• Mega Millions official game information and recent drawings: megamillions.com
• Historical Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot records: powerball.com/prize-payouts
• MUSL jackpot watch archive: musl.com