With no jackpot winners from the Christmas Eve drawing, the Mega Millions jackpot has reached an estimated $1.15 billion, marking the fifth-highest jackpot in the game’s history.
Ahead of the Dec. 24 drawing, the jackpot reached an estimated $1 billion ($448.8 million cash), marking the seventh time the jackpot had surpassed the one billion dollar mark. Though no one won the billion, there were four winning tickets that won a million dollars a piece, matching the five winning numbers but not the Megaplier number.
The winning numbers from the Dec. 24 drawing were 11, 14, 38, 45, 46, and 3 as the Megaplier.
“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15 billion jackpot,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, in a statement online. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holidays – whether Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, or any other way people choose to celebrate the season – than by helping fulfill the dreams that come with a prize like this and prizes that will be won at all levels of the game.”
The next drawing will take place at 11 p.m. on Dec. 27, where ticket holders will have the chance to take home the $1.15 billion or $516.1 million cash.
If a winning ticket is produced in this drawing, it would be the fifth-highest jackpot in Mega Millions history. In August 2023, a Florida ticket was sold, winning the highest prize in history at 1.602 billion.
This year, Mega Millions saw three big winners: in March, a winning ticket in New Jersey had a $1.128 billion prize; in September, a winning ticket worth $810 million was sold in Texas; and in June, a $552 million jackpot was taken in Illinois, the highest prize so far for an online lottery player.
