The 10 biggest lottery jackpots in U.S. history

A billion-dollar lottery prize existed only on paper in the U.S. until January 2016, when a Powerball jackpot climbed past $1.5 billion and three tickets split it. Prizes of that size are now a recurring feature of the two national games rather than a once-in-a-generation event. Every jackpot on this list was drawn in 2016 or later, and the top five each topped $1.5 billion.

The reason is structural. Powerball rebuilt its number matrix in October 2015, expanding the white ball pool from 59 to 69 while cutting the red Powerball field from 35 to 26. The odds of matching all six numbers moved to about one in 292.2 million. Mega Millions made a comparable change in October 2017, raising the ticket price to $2 and lengthening its jackpot odds to roughly one in 302.6 million. Longer odds produce fewer winners, longer rollover streaks and much larger advertised totals by the time a ticket finally hits.

One distinction runs through every entry. The headline figures attached to the biggest lottery jackpots in U.S. history are advertised annuity values, paid out in 30 installments that increase each year. Most winners take the lump sum instead, which is worth considerably less. The record $2.04 billion Powerball ticket carried a cash option of about $997 million before taxes.

Where the ticket was sold shapes what the winner keeps. California exempts lottery prizes from state income tax, and Florida levies no state income tax at all, so tickets sold in those states face only the federal bill. Other states take a cut on top of that. Disclosure rules vary just as widely: some publish a winner's name and hometown, while others allow the prize to be claimed through a trust or a limited liability company.

What follows runs from the largest American lottery prize ever awarded down to the tenth, with the game, the drawing date, the state where the ticket was sold and the cash value for each.

Illustration: Quartz

The largest lottery jackpot ever won in the U.S. was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize drawn on November 7, 2022. A single ticket sold at Joe's Service Center, a gas station in Altadena, California, matched all six numbers. The winner was later identified as Edwin Castro.

The run that produced it began in early August 2022. For roughly three months no ticket matched the full line, and the advertised total climbed through the fall as drawing after drawing passed without a winner. By the first week of November the prize had cleared the old world record of $1.586 billion, set by Powerball in 2016, and sales surged in the final days.

The drawing itself ran late. Powerball held it for several hours because one participating lottery needed more time to finish the sales and security checks required before numbers can be drawn. The results came out the next morning.

Castro took the lump sum instead of the 30-year annuity. The cash value was about $997.6 million before taxes, the largest single lottery payment made in the country at that point. California does not tax lottery winnings at the state level, so federal withholding and federal income tax accounted for most of the reduction. Castro went on to buy property around Los Angeles, including homes in Altadena and the Hollywood Hills.

The odds explain how the total climbed so far. A $2 Powerball ticket carries about a one in 292.2 million chance of matching five white balls and the red Powerball, a figure locked in when the game widened its white ball pool in October 2015. Longer odds mean fewer winners, and fewer winners mean longer rollovers, which is how a jackpot reaches 10 figures.

Joe's Service Center collected a $1 million retailer bonus from the California Lottery for selling the ticket. No lottery prize anywhere has topped the $2.04 billion mark since.

Illustration: Quartz

One ticket sold at a market in Frazier Park, California, matched all six numbers on October 11, 2023 to win a $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot. At the time it was the second-largest prize in U.S. lottery history, behind only the $2.04 billion Powerball record set 11 months earlier.

The run-up lasted nearly three months. Powerball had not produced a top-prize winner since July 19, 2023, and more than 30 consecutive drawings came and went with no one matching the full line. Each miss pushed the advertised total higher as ticket sales accelerated across the game's participating jurisdictions.

The cash option came to roughly $774.1 million before federal withholding. The advertised $1.765 billion describes the annuity instead: 30 payments spread over 29 years, with each installment 5% larger than the one before it. Taking the lump sum means accepting the amount the lottery would otherwise have invested to fund those future payments.

Advertised jackpots are estimates until ticket sales close. The final figure for this drawing was confirmed only after sales totals were counted, which is why the number attached to a record jackpot often moves in the last days before a drawing.

California does not allow jackpot winners to stay anonymous. A prize can be claimed on behalf of a group or a legal entity, but the name on the claim form and the identity of the retailer that sold the ticket become public record under state law. That sets California apart from states where a trust can keep a winner's identity private.

California also sells more lottery tickets than any other state, which raises the odds that a record ticket turns up somewhere inside its borders. The Frazier Park win was the second jackpot above $1 billion sold in California in less than a year, after the Altadena ticket from November 2022.

Powerball is sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and sales are pooled across all of them. A prize that size is funded by players nationwide, even when a single store in one small town sells the winning line.

Illustration: Quartz

The third-largest prize in American lottery history was a $1.602 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawn on August 8, 2023, won on a single ticket sold in Neptune Beach, Florida. The lump-sum cash option came to about $794.2 million before taxes.

The streak behind it began in late April 2023. Over roughly four months of drawings, no ticket matched all five white balls and the Mega Ball. Each miss pushed the advertised annuity higher. By the night of the drawing, the total had passed the $1.537 billion won in South Carolina in 2018, making it the largest prize in the game's history to that point.

Florida's tax treatment mattered here. The state collects no personal income tax, so the holder faced federal withholding without a state-level cut on top — a gap worth tens of millions of dollars against a lump sum that size. Florida law also keeps the names of winners of $250,000 or more confidential for 90 days after the prize is claimed. Winners at this level often file through a trust or an attorney to extend that privacy.

Ticket sales during a rollover run do not climb in a straight line. Demand stays modest while a jackpot sits in the low hundreds of millions, then jumps once the number clears $1 billion and the drawing becomes national news. That late surge covers far more number combinations, which is usually what ends the streak.

The two national games run on separate calendars. Mega Millions draws Tuesdays and Fridays. Powerball draws Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Players in most states have a shot at a nine-figure prize or larger on five nights of a typical week, which is part of why jackpot coverage rarely pauses.

The August result also set up an odd year for Mega Millions. The game produced the two biggest jackpots in its history within a few months of each other, with a $1.765 billion prize following in October.

Illustration: Quartz

The $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot drawn on January 13, 2016 held the world record for a lottery prize for nearly seven years. It is also the only jackpot in the American top four that was not won on one ticket — three tickets matched all six numbers, sold in California, Florida and Tennessee.

Each winning party took an annuity share of about $528.8 million, or a cash share of roughly $327.8 million before taxes. John and Lisa Robinson of Munford, Tennessee came forward within days and chose the lump sum. The Florida ticket was sold in Melbourne Beach and claimed by Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt. The California ticket came from a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, which drew crowds for weeks and collected a $1 million retailer bonus from the California Lottery.

The run began in early November 2015 and stretched across nearly three months of drawings without a jackpot winner. By the final weekend, buyers queued outside convenience stores in several states, and Powerball recorded the heaviest sales in its history. Lottery officials revised the advertised total upward more than once in the days before the drawing, as ticket data came in ahead of their projections.

Timing explains much of the size. The drawing came three months after Powerball expanded its white ball pool from 59 numbers to 69 in October 2015 and trimmed the red Powerball pool from 35 to 26. The change made the top prize much harder to hit and allowed jackpots to roll far longer between winners. The first full run under that structure went unclaimed long enough to reach a figure no lottery anywhere had posted.

The outcome answered a question the industry had not tested: whether American players would keep buying at prize levels that had never existed. They did. Mega Millions reworked its own number matrix in October 2017, and the billion-dollar prizes that followed rest on the math this drawing proved out.

Illustration: Quartz

Mega Millions crossed $1 billion for the first time on October 23, 2018, with a $1.537 billion jackpot won on a single ticket sold in South Carolina. The prize still ranks fifth among American lottery jackpots, and it was the largest ever won on one ticket until November 2022.

The ticket came from a KC Mart convenience store in Simpsonville, a town outside Greenville. More than two months of drawings had passed without anyone matching all six numbers. That run was a product of the revised number matrix Mega Millions adopted in October 2017, which lengthened the odds of a top-prize win and let jackpots build for longer stretches.

No one claimed the money for months. South Carolina lets lottery winners stay anonymous, and the ticket holder came forward in early March 2019 through an attorney, inside the state's 180-day claim window. The winner's name has never been released.

The payout was taken as a lump sum of about $877.8 million before taxes. That stood as the largest single lottery payment made in the U.S. until the record Powerball ticket of November 2022 passed it. The advertised $1.537 billion figure assumed 30 graduated annual installments. The cash option pays the discounted present value instead, which is why so much of the headline number vanishes at the moment of claim.

The KC Mart collected a $50,000 retailer commission for selling the ticket, the standard bonus South Carolina pays a store at the point of sale.

The case became a reference point in the argument over whether jackpot winners should be named. States that require disclosure say publicity proves the games pay out. States that permit anonymity cite the security and harassment risks facing a newly wealthy claimant.

The result also narrowed the gap between the two national games. Mega Millions had long trailed Powerball in headline prizes, and a single-ticket win of this size put it within reach of the record set two years earlier.

Illustration: Quartz

Maine produced the sixth-largest lottery prize in American history on January 13, 2023, when a single Mega Millions ticket matched all six numbers for $1.348 billion. The ticket was sold at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, a town on the New Hampshire border, and it remains by a wide margin the largest jackpot ever won in the state.

The top prize had rolled over for about three months without a winner. Winless streaks of that length became ordinary for Mega Millions after the game lengthened its odds in 2017, which is how a prize sold in one of the country's smallest lottery markets reached 13 figures.

The winner took the lump sum, worth roughly $723.5 million before taxes, instead of the 30-year annuity. He was identified as Clarance Jones, a Maine resident who claimed the money through a limited liability company called LaKoma Island Investments. The corporate structure held the payout, but it did not keep his name off the public record. Maine law required disclosure of the winner's identity.

That sets this jackpot apart from several others of similar size. Tickets of comparable value in Florida and South Carolina were claimed without the winners' names ever becoming public. Jones was named within weeks of coming forward. Maine also taxes lottery winnings at the state level. That trimmed his final total beyond the 24% federal withholding and the additional federal tax owed at filing.

The drawing came about two months after the record $2.04 billion Powerball prize, during a stretch when billion-dollar jackpots arrived in close succession. Maine began selling Mega Millions tickets in 2010, when the two national games agreed to cross-sell in each other's states. The win also showed that sales volume has no bearing on where a winning ticket lands. One $2 ticket bought at a roadside gas station beat every ticket sold in California, Texas and New York that night.

Illustration: Quartz

Oregon claimed its first billion-dollar lottery prize on April 6, 2024, when a single Powerball ticket sold in Portland matched all six numbers for an advertised $1.326 billion. The ticket came from a Plaid Pantry convenience store, and the winners took the cash option of about $621 million before taxes.

Three people shared the prize. Cheng Saephan, Duanpen Saephan and Laiza Chao stepped forward in late April after pooling money to buy tickets together. Cheng Saephan, an immigrant from Laos who was undergoing cancer treatment, spoke about the win at a press conference in Salem with Oregon Lottery officials.

Oregon does not let jackpot winners stay anonymous. The state treats a winner's name as public record, which is why the three were identified within weeks rather than claiming through a trust or other shielded entity, as winners in California and Florida have done. Oregon also taxes lottery income at the state level on top of federal withholding, pushing the final payout well below the $621 million cash figure.

The jackpot built from the start of January, surviving roughly 40 drawings without anyone matching all six numbers. That run carried the advertised total from the $20 million reset through the entire nine-figure range and past $1 billion in the first week of April.

Powerball's draw calendar shaped the climb. The game added Monday drawings in August 2021, moving from two draws a week to three, which lets an advertised figure rise faster during a winless streak and compresses the stretch when public attention peaks.

For a state of roughly 4.2 million residents, the result was an outlier. Prizes of this size usually land in California, Florida and other high-volume ticket markets, where the sheer number of tickets sold makes a winning combination more likely to turn up.

Illustration: Quartz

A single ticket sold in Neptune Township, New Jersey, won $1.128 billion in the Mega Millions drawing of March 26, 2024 — the eighth-largest lottery prize ever awarded in the U.S. and the biggest ever claimed in the state. The winner took the cash option, worth about $536.6 million before taxes.

The streak behind it started in December 2023. No ticket matched all five white balls and the gold Mega Ball across roughly three months of twice-weekly drawings. The advertised total climbed through the winter before clearing $1 billion in late March.

The distance between the $1.128 billion annuity figure and the $536.6 million cash figure reflects how these prizes are funded. The cash value is what the lottery would need to invest now to cover 30 years of scheduled payments. Interest rates move that number. Higher rates shrink the spread, and lower rates widen it.

New Jersey law lets lottery winners keep their names off the public record. The holder of this ticket claimed through a legal entity rather than under a personal name. The state also taxes lottery prizes, so the amount that reached the winner fell below the headline cash figure once federal withholding and state tax were applied.

This was the third Mega Millions prize above $1 billion in about 18 months, after the August and October 2023 drawings. The clustering traced back to the 2017 change in the game's number matrix. Longer average gaps between winners let totals compound further before anyone hit all six numbers.

Revenue from the New Jersey Lottery goes to state pension funds covering teachers, police officers and firefighters. A 2017 law redirected the lottery's contribution to those systems. Most state lotteries dedicate their proceeds to a named public purpose, though the beneficiary differs sharply from one state to the next — education, parks, veterans' programs or the general fund, depending on the statute.

Illustration: Quartz

Powerball's drawing on July 19, 2023 produced a $1.08 billion jackpot won on a single ticket sold in downtown Los Angeles, with a cash value of about $558.1 million. It ranks as the ninth-largest lottery prize ever won in the U.S.

The ticket came from Las Palmitas Mini Market, a small neighborhood store rather than a high-traffic supermarket or highway gas station. California Lottery rules pay the retailer that sells a jackpot ticket a bonus worth half a percent of the prize, capped at $1 million, and the shop qualified for the full amount.

The run began after a Powerball jackpot was hit in April 2023 and continued for roughly three months with no ticket matching all six numbers. More than 30 consecutive drawings passed before the streak ended, which is how the advertised total climbed from nine figures into 10.

The winner claimed the money through a trust, and no name was ever released publicly. California allows that arrangement, and the state also exempts lottery prizes from its income tax, so federal withholding was the only deduction at payout. The same $558.1 million collected in a high-tax state would have been reduced by tens of millions more.

The drawing landed in the middle of an unusual stretch for American lotteries. It delivered the third U.S. jackpot above $1 billion in about nine months, following the record $2.04 billion Powerball prize of November 2022 and a $1.348 billion Mega Millions run in January 2023. No U.S. jackpot had reached $1 billion at all before 2016.

Revenue from California Lottery sales goes to public schools, community colleges and universities under the formula written into Proposition 37, the 1984 ballot measure that created the game. Long jackpot streaks lift those contributions, because sales rise fastest in the final days before a drawing once the prize is large enough to attract national coverage.