Two tickets snagged the $494 million Mega Millions prize Friday night — but the Powerball jackpot is still growing.
The lottery game's jackpot is inching closer to $500 million after a weekslong winless streak that continued Saturday night. With no grand prize winner, the jackpot grew to $480 million — $242.2 million if the winner chooses the more popular cash option.
The winning Powerball numbers for Saturday were 32-37-40-58-62 with the Powerball 15 and Power Play 5.
Players must match all five numbers and the Powerball to win the grand prize. The odds of that happening are tiny at less than 1 in 292 million.
A couple of people are waking up millionaires, though. According to Powerball's website, two tickets matched the five numbers to win $1 million Saturday night. They were bought in Ohio and Texas.
The next Powerball drawing is on Monday, Oct. 17.
It's been a big year for both major lottery games. A near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot had Americans in a lottery frenzy in July until a winner in Illinois took home the grand prize. Two people came forward last month to claim that prize, but they chose to stay anonymous.
While Mega Millions has had several headline-making jackpots in recent years, Powerball says it holds the world record for largest jackpot with a whopping $1.586 billion prize won in 2016.
Powerball's current jackpot has a ways to go before it nears record status. Here's a look at the biggest U.S. jackpots ever, according to the Associated Press:
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
- $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
- $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
- $687.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 27, 2018 (two tickets, from Iowa and New York)
- $656 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (three tickets, from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland)
