Mega Millions last saw a winner July 29, when a single ticket sold in a Chicago suburb won a $1.337 billion prize.
WASHINGTON — Two people across the country from one another are waking up multimillionaires.
The lottery game said ticket-holders in California and Florida matched all six numbers drawn Friday night, splitting the estimated prize of $494 million. Most winners take the cash prize, in this case $247.9 million.
Mega Millions said in a press release that this was its eleventh-largest jackpot ever. It’s also a surprising coincidence — the last time two tickets split the Mega Millions jackpot was almost exactly five years ago on Oct. 13, 2017.
They weren’t the only winners Friday: Two tickets sold in North Carolina and New Jersey matched the five white numbers to win $1 million. Another ticket, this one sold in Texas, also added the Megaplier and won $2 million.
The winning numbers for Friday were 9-22-26-41-44, Mega Ball 19 and Megaplier 2.
Mega Millions hadn’t seen a winner since July 29, when a single ticket sold in a Chicago suburb won a $1.337 billion prize.
In order to win the Mega Millions grand prize, a player needs to match all five numbers and the gold Mega Ball number. Players face astronomical odds for a jackpot win: 1 in 302.5 million.
The jackpot will reset to $20 million for the next drawing on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Meanwhile, Powerball has an estimated $454 million jackpot up for grabs on Saturday as its own winless streak continues, inching the jackpot closer to the top 10 largest Powerball jackpots ever won. The cash value on the prize is $232.6 million.
Nobody won the Powerball jackpot Wednesday, but three tickets from Wednesday night’s drawing won $250,000 after matching four numbers and the Powerball, along with having the “Power Play” feature that multiplied the prize by five times. Those tickets were bought in Colorado, Idaho and Texas.
While Mega Millions and Powerball both hit jackpots over $400 million this week, neither come close to last summer’s near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot that had Americans in a lottery frenzy in July. A winner in Illinois took home the grand prize. Two people came forward last month to claim it but chose to stay anonymous.
Megan Divers contributed to this report.