Mega Millions: These 'hot' numbers have been drawn the most since the last jackpot

(NEXSTAR) — Without a winner Tuesday, the Mega Millions jackpot has propelled even closer to $1 billion ahead of the next drawing, set for Friday night.

As of late Thursday, Mega Millions officials estimated the jackpot at $977 million, with a cash value of $461 million. At that size, it ranks as the sixth-largest in Mega Millions history.

There are various ways in which players believe they can increase their odds at the jackpot. Among those is, of course, picking just the right numbers.

Do your lucky numbers stand a chance, though?

When playing Mega Millions, you'll have the option of getting a random set of numbers or selecting your own. Either way, you'll end up with five main numbers from a pool of 1-70, and one Mega Ball number between 1-25.

While the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are ultra-slim (about 1 in 302.6 million), it does seem that some numbers are picked more often than others.

Data collected by Lotto America shows that since 1996 (when Mega Millions was rebranded from "The Big Game"), there are 10 numbers that have been drawn more than 250 times. The five most frequent numbers are 17, 31, 10, 46, and 20 — all five have been drawn at least once since the last Mega Millions jackpot was won in December.

As for the Mega Ball, only six numbers have been drawn more than 100 times: 1, 3, 9, 10, 15, and 7. Only 9 and 15 have not been pulled during this jackpot run, Lotto America shows.

Those stats change slightly if we only look as far back as 2017, when the main ball pool dropped from 75 and the Mega Ball pool grew from 15.

The five most frequently drawn numbers since then are 10, 3, 17, 14, and 46, while the most frequent Mega Ball numbers have been 11, 22, 18, 24, and 13. Only Mega Ball 22 has not been drawn since early December.

But maybe you're more interested in the numbers that have been hot (and cold) as of late. We've got you covered.

After analyzing the last 29 drawings (that's how many there have been since the jackpot was last won), we found that among the main pool of numbers, 58 has been drawn the most, coming up in seven drawings. It was last pulled during the drawing on March 8. Close behind is 10, which has appeared in five drawings, but none since early February.

After 58 and 10 are nine numbers that have been pulled four times: 2, 19, 22, 26, 49, 50, 61, 64, and 69. For the Mega Ball, there are four numbers that have been drawn three times: 1, 11, 24, and 7.

There are some, however, that haven't been drawn at all. In the main pool, that's 43, 48, 52, 56, 63, and 65. For the Mega Ball, nine numbers have yet to appear in this jackpot run: 2, 19, 22, 5, 16, 23, 8, 15, and 9.

Some players might consider these numbers “overdue.” According to Lotto America, that is the case for 48, 56, 63, 7, and 43 in the main pool, as well as 23, 19, 9, 5, and 2 for the Mega Ball (your state may also be "overdue" for a jackpot).

Can't decide between playing the hottest numbers, or maybe all of the overdue numbers?

You could do either, neither, or a combo. Either way, any and every number combination has the same slim chance of winning, Rong Chen, professor and chair of the Department of Statistics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, explains. That means the numbers drawn on Tuesday have an equal chance of being drawn again on Friday. 

You can try to cut down your odds of having to split the lottery prize by picking numbers others may not pick. Chen suggests numbers larger than 31 (this avoids dates like birthdays) and avoiding numbers along the edges or corners of the ticket form. 

You could also buy more tickets. But, for example, buying 100 tickets would only cut your odds from 1 in 302.5 million to about 1 in 3.02 million. 

The next Mega Millions drawing is scheduled for Friday at 11 p.m. ET. Mega Millions is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets start at $2 each.