There was a top prize of $368 million and a cash option of $266 million up for grabs, but did anyone take home the big one?
According to the Mega Millions website, no ticket matched all five numbers and the Mega Ball to win the big prize, so the jackpot keeps growing. However, there were two winners of the $1 million prize for tickets matching all five numbers, sold in Florida and New York.
There were also 12 winners of the $10,000 prize for those who matched four numbers and the Mega Ball. One doubled their winnings by using the Megaplier.
There were 444 players who won $500 by matching four numbers, 80 of whom doubled their prize to $1,000 with the Megaplier.
Some 1,165 players won $200 by matching three numbers and the Mega Ball, with 226 players winning $400 by using the Megaplier. Over 769,000 tickets won prizes of at least $2.
The top prize is getting bigger and bigger with the next estimated jackpot set at $383 million with a cash option of $277.3 million.
There has never been a Mega Millions jackpot this large offered in September in the game’s 19-year history, and next week’s prize beats the largest ever offered this month, which was $336 million on September 28, 2018, Mega Millions said in a press release.
So far this year, there have been four Mega Millions jackpots, the most recent one was a $55 million prize won in Illinois on June 8.
At the start of the year, the second-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, which was $1.05 billion, was won on January 22 by a group of players in Michigan. Other jackpots won in 2021 were $516 million in Pennsylvania on May 21, and $96 million in New York on February 16.
How Does Mega Millions work?
People can buy tickets in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although lottery tickets are not available in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.
Each ticket from a licensed lottery retailer costs $2 and the Megaplier is an extra $1. The jackpot starts at $20 million and other prizes range from $2 to $1 million.
Five numbers between 1 to 70 are picked for the white balls while one number between 1 and 25 for the gold numbers is chosen. Players can also get a random selection via the Easy Pick or Quick Pick options.
The winner of the top prize can claim it either as an annuity or as cash. This can mean they choose a one-off payment followed by 29 annual payments, with each payment worth five percent more than the previous one.
They can also choose the cash option which is a one-time, lump-sum payment equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool.
The drawings are held on Tuesday and Friday at WSB-TV in Atlanta, in which five white balls are taken from a set numbered 1 through 70. One gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set numbered 1 through 25.
