Someone in California is holding onto a lottery ticket worth $1.22 billion after matching all five white balls and the Mega Ball in Friday night's Mega Millions drawing.
The winning numbers were the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, and 55, and the gold was Mega Ball 6.
The winner has the option of taking the $1.22 billion spread over 29 years or a one-time lump sum of $549.7 million. Friday's drawing was the fifth-largest jackpot in the lottery's history and its largest of 2024. It was also the ninth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history when including Powerball.
“Congratulations to our $1.22 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."
The jackpot has grown thanks to an over-three-month streak without a winner. Only four Mega Millions jackpots have been won in 2024, which would be the lottery's fewest on record. Mega Millions has one more drawing in 2024, as Tuesday's jackpot reverts to $20 million.
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Although only one winning ticket can claim the top prize from Friday, there were a total of 5,691,299 winning tickets for prizes ranging from $2 to over $1 million. Five players hit all five white balls, winning prizes of at least $1 million.
The lottery launched in 1996 with 1-in-52.9 million odds. Drawings then had 50 white balls and 25 gold balls. By 2013, the lottery had 1-in-258 million odds by having 75 white balls and 15 gold balls.
In 2017, Mega Millions actually reduced the number of white balls — a first among multi-state lotteries — to 70, but increased the number of gold balls to 25. This made Mega Millions the toughest lottery to win, with 1-in-302 million odds.
Tickets are $2 each. The odds of winning a smaller prize are about 1 in 24.
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Eighteen states allow winners of large lotteries to stay fully anonymous, shielding winners from the attention claiming such a prize can draw.
