A single ticket sold in Georgia won the estimated $980 million Mega Millions jackpot, which is the eighth largest in its history, the lottery announced Saturday.
The last time someone took home such a lofty prize was in December 2024, when a California player nabbed a $1.269 billion prize.
"After growing since the end of June, the Mega Millions jackpot was won for just the fifth time this year on Friday night. A single ticket sold in Georgia matched all six numbers in the November 14 drawing – the white balls 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 7 – to win the estimated $980 million prize ($452.2 million cash)," the lottery said.
"It’s by far the largest prize ever won in the month of November, and the eighth largest jackpot in the history of the game," the lottery added, noting that, "in the 40 drawings since the jackpot was last won at $348 million in Virginia on June 27 — the most drawings in a single jackpot run in the game’s history — there were almost 14.3 million winning tickets at all prize levels."
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Numbers on tickets for the Mega Millions lottery are selected by a purchaser in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 4, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"With the new greatly-enhanced prize values, total non-jackpot prizes won were nearly $343.4 million," it also said. "These include 21 second-tier prizes of $2 million or more (won in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia)."
Mega Millions changed its format in April, raising ticket prices from $2 to $5 per play.
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Lottery tickets for the Mega Millions lottery are purchased from a liquor store where winning tickets have been sold on Dec. 27, 2024, in Hawthorne, Calif. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP / Getty Images)
The change in price will accelerate jackpots much faster and allow the lottery to raise the starting jackpot from $20 million to $50 million.
The record is still the Florida prize in August 2023, at $1.602 billion.
A man holds Mega Millions lottery tickets on July 29, 2022, in New York City. (John Smith/VIEWpress / Getty Images)
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"$980 million is the largest jackpot that’s been won since the Mega Millions game changed back in April," Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement.
Gxstocks’ Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.
