The Mega Millions jackpot has surged to an estimated $547 million, with a cash option of $251.7 million, for the drawing set for Tuesday, October 7, 2025. This marks the 12th largest jackpot in the game’s history, following a Friday, October 3, drawing where no ticket matched all six numbers: white balls 18, 19, 38, 54, and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 19.
The October 3 drawing generated 346,980 winning tickets across all prize tiers, yielding nearly $7 million in total prizes. Ten tickets won the third-tier prize by matching four white balls and the Mega Ball. Seven of these, with a 2X multiplier, secured $20,000 each: two each in California and Missouri, and one each in New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. Three others, with a 3X multiplier, claimed $30,000 each: one in Connecticut and one each in New Jersey and New York. In California, prize amounts vary due to the state’s pari-mutuel system, which calculates payouts based on ticket sales and winners.
Detailed results from the October 3 drawing are available on the official Mega Millions website. Since the current jackpot run began after the last win on June 27, 2025, in Virginia, over 7.5 million tickets have won prizes totaling more than $177.6 million across 28 drawings starting July 1, 2025. This sequence has produced 10 second-tier prizes of at least $1 million, boosted by multipliers. Five tickets won $2 million each: one in California, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. Another five secured $3 million each: two in California and one each in Florida, Georgia, and New York.
The run also saw 165 third-tier prizes, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 based on multipliers, won across 34 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. These wins highlight the game’s broad reach across the 45 participating states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The June 27 Virginia jackpot was the fourth top prize awarded in 2025, following wins in Ohio ($112 million on April 18), Illinois ($349 million on March 25), and Arizona ($112 million on January 17). Mega Millions has a storied history of massive jackpots, with seven exceeding $1 billion, each in a different state: South Carolina (2018), Michigan (2021), Illinois (2022), Maine and Florida (2023), and New Jersey and California (2024). The record jackpot remains $1.602 billion, won in Florida on August 8, 2023.
In April 2025, Mega Millions introduced a revamped format, effective April 8, which increased the ticket price to $5 and added an automatic multiplier (2X to 10X) to every ticket, enhancing non-jackpot prizes. The first drawing under these rules saw a 308 percent increase in non-jackpot winnings, with 1.89 million players receiving $51.3 million in prizes. Second-tier prizes now start at $2 million, and third-tier prizes range from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on the multiplier.
Players select five numbers from 1 to 70 for the white balls and one number from 1 to 24 for the gold Mega Ball, or choose a quick pick for random selection. Drawings occur every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern Time. The multiplier, randomly assigned at purchase, applies to all non-jackpot prizes. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 290,472,336, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 23. The nine prize tiers range from $10 (or up to $50 with a multiplier) for matching only the Mega Ball to the jackpot. For example, matching four white balls and the Mega Ball yields $20,000 with a 2X multiplier, up to $100,000 with a 10X multiplier.
Jackpot winners can choose between an annuity option—consisting of an initial payment followed by 29 annual installments increasing by 5 percent—or a lump-sum cash payment reflecting the prize pool’s cash value. All prizes are subject to federal taxes, and most states apply additional taxes, with rates varying by jurisdiction. For instance, New York withholds 24 percent federal and up to 10.9 percent state tax, while Florida and Texas have no state income tax.
