By Jesús Jiménez
A single winning ticket was sold in Florida for one of the largest lottery prizes in U.S. history, a Mega Millions jackpot of $1.58 billion, the company said early Wednesday.
The winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing were 13, 19, 20, 32, 33 and the Mega Ball of 14. The company did not identify the owner of the winning ticket, which was sold at a Publix supermarket in Neptune Beach, Florida, in the Jacksonville area, according to the Florida Lottery.
It is the second time in less than a month that a ticket has won a lottery jackpot of more than $1 billion. On July 19, a single winning ticket sold in California won a $1.08 billion jackpot in the competing Powerball lottery.
Huge jackpots have become more common in the multistate Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries in recent years because of changes to the games and higher ticket prices. Between the two lotteries, eight jackpots in the United States have reached $1 billion or more since 2016, including five in the past two years.
Here’s a look at the 10 biggest U.S. jackpots.
1. $2.04 billion
The largest lottery jackpot to date, a Powerball drawing, was won Nov. 7, 2022. The ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California, just north of Pasadena.
On Feb. 14, California Lottery officials revealed the winner’s name, Edwin Castro, but did not release further information about him at his request.
2. $1.586 billion
The second biggest jackpot, also a Powerball, was split three ways. The winning numbers were drawn Jan. 13, 2016, matching tickets bought in Chino Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles; Munford, Tennessee, north of Memphis; and Melbourne Beach, Florida, on the Atlantic coast.
“I think we can all live on $528 million, don’t you think?” Russ Lopez, a spokesperson for the California Lottery, said at the time.
3. $1.58 billion
This was the Mega Millions jackpot up for grabs in Tuesday’s drawing. Taken as a single, after-tax cash payout, the prize would be $783.3 million.
The winning ticket was one of more than 7 million winning ones sold across all prize levels, including two tickets worth $2 million each that were sold in Florida and North Carolina, the company said in a statement.
4. $1.54 billion
A single ticket sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina, won a Mega Millions jackpot Oct. 23, 2018. The prize was not claimed until March of the following year, when an anonymous winner came forward through a lawyer, opting for a one-time lump sum of $877,784,124 instead of taking payments over 30 years.
5. $1.35 billion
A single ticket sold in Lebanon, Maine, won an estimated $1.35 billion in the Mega Millions drawing Jan. 13, 2023. A winner came forward a month later but chose to remain anonymous, officials said. The person collected the prize, through a limited liability company, as a single cash payment of $723,564,144 before taxes.
6. $1.337 billion
The winning Mega Millions ticket on July 29, 2022, was sold in Des Plaines, Illinois. After several weeks, an anonymous winner came forward. Illinois is one of several states that allow lottery winners to keep their names and addresses confidential.
7. $1.08 billion
After three months without a winner, a single ticket sold in Los Angeles won the Powerball jackpot July 19. The winner has not come forward. It was the second time in eight months that a winning ticket for a jackpot of more than $1 billion was sold in Los Angeles County.
The winner could opt to take the payment as a lump sum, which would be about $558.1 million before taxes, according to Powerball.
8. $1.05 billion
A group identified as the Wolverine FLL Club of Oakland County won just over $1 billion in the Mega Millions drawing Jan. 22, 2021, after buying a ticket in Novi, Michigan.
9. $768.4 million
Manuel Franco of Wisconsin won a $768.4 million prize in the Powerball drawing March 27, 2019. The sum was enough for Franco to quit his job within two days of winning.
Wisconsin has no law protecting the identities of people who win lotteries, which means Franco was required to come forward publicly.
10. $758.7 million
A 53-year-old health care worker from Chicopee, Massachusetts, became a multimillionaire when she won the Powerball jackpot Aug. 23, 2017. The winner, Mavis Wanczyk, opted for a lump-sum payment of $480.5 million. After taxes — 25% to the federal government and 5% to her state — she took home $336 million.