Numbers drawn for $1.1B Mega Millions jackpot: Check your tickets here
(NEXSTAR) — The winning numbers for the record-setting $1.1 billion Mega Millions jackpot have been drawn.
If you're lucky enough to be holding a ticket that matches all of the numbers drawn Tuesday, seen below, you could be the winner of the fourth-largest prize in game history and the sixth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
The winning numbers are 8, 24, 30, 45, and 61, and Mega Ball 12. The Megaplier was 4X.
This jackpot has been brewing since April when a $20 million prize was won by a ticket sold in Syracuse, New York, just four days after a $483 million Mega Millions jackpot was hit by a ticket sold in Queens.
Ahead of Tuesday’s drawing, Mega Millions officials estimated the jackpot’s size at $1.1 billion with a cash value of $550.2 million. That puts it as the fourth-largest in the game’s history behind a $1.337 billion prize won by a 2022 ticket sold in Illinois. It also ranks among the largest U.S. lottery prizes:
- $2.04 billion (Powerball): Nov. 7, 2022; California
- $1.586 billion (Powerball): Jan. 13, 2016; California, Florida, Tennessee
- $1.537 billion (Mega Millions): Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina
- $1.348 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 13, 2023; Maine
- $1.337 billion (Mega Millions): July 29, 2022; Illinois
- Est. $1.1 billion (Mega Millions): Aug. 1, 2023
- $1.08 billion (Powerball): July 19, 2023; California
- $1.050 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 22, 2021; Michigan
- $768.4 million (Powerball): March 27, 2019; Wisconsin
- $758.7 million (Powerball): Aug. 23, 2017; Massachusetts
Should you be the lucky winner, you’ll be able to either take the cash lump sum payment or the annuity option, which offers one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that grow by 5% each time. Whichever you choose, you'll still walk away with less than $1.1 billion.
You may want to think twice before collecting the cash option though. Winners of giant jackpots nearly always take the cash, and financial advisers say that might be a mistake.
Without a winner in Tuesday's drawing, the jackpot could reach an estimated $1.25 billion ahead of the next drawing.
Your odds of winning any prize (there are nine total ways to win) while playing Mega Millions is 1 in 24, but your odds at landing the jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.
Winner or not, the next Mega Millions drawing will be at 11 p.m. ET on Friday. Tickets start at $2 each, and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.