Updated October 26, 2026.
Mega Millions changed with the drawing on April 8, 2025. A play now costs $5, and that price includes a multiplier. You choose five white balls from 1 through 70 and one gold Mega Ball from 1 through 24. The optional $1 Megaplier is gone. This page describes the game as the consortium publishes it, and it explains how LotteryMigo’s archive splits the new rules from the older ones. It is not a recommendation to play.
The last drawing under the previous rules was April 4, 2025. Tickets issued for a drawing before the change are paid on the prize chart that was in effect for that drawing, if they are claimed by the deadline the selling lottery sets. A ticket for April 8 or later follows the $5 game.
The current play
The Mega Millions how-to-play page says a ticket costs $5.00 per play with the multiplier included. You may mark your own numbers or take an Easy Pick / Quick Pick. The white balls are drawn from 70 numbers. The Mega Ball is drawn from 24 numbers. Matching all five white balls and the Mega Ball wins the jackpot. If several tickets do that, they share the jackpot.
There are nine prize tiers. The multiplier printed on the ticket is 2×, 3×, 4×, 5×, or 10×, assigned at purchase. It applies to every non-jackpot prize. It does not apply to the jackpot. The how-to-play page prints the already-multiplied prize for each tier. A separate prize-matrix page shows the base amount those multipliers start from, beginning with the April 8, 2025 drawing.
| Match | 2× | 3× | 4× | 5× | 10× | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 + Mega Ball | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot | 1 in 290,472,336 |
| 5 white balls | $2 million | $3 million | $4 million | $5 million | $10 million | 1 in 12,629,232 |
| 4 + Mega Ball | $20,000 | $30,000 | $40,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | 1 in 893,761 |
| 4 white balls | $1,000 | $1,500 | $2,000 | $2,500 | $5,000 | 1 in 38,859 |
| 3 + Mega Ball | $400 | $600 | $800 | $1,000 | $2,000 | 1 in 13,965 |
| 3 white balls | $20 | $30 | $40 | $50 | $100 | 1 in 607 |
| 2 + Mega Ball | $20 | $30 | $40 | $50 | $100 | 1 in 665 |
| 1 + Mega Ball | $14 | $21 | $28 | $35 | $70 | 1 in 86 |
| Mega Ball only | $10 | $15 | $20 | $25 | $50 | 1 in 35 |
The base prizes on the matrix page, before that multiplier, are $5 for the Mega Ball alone, $7 with one white ball, $10 with two white balls, $10 with three white balls, $200 with three white balls plus the Mega Ball, $500 with four white balls, $10,000 with four plus the Mega Ball, $1 million with five white balls, and the jackpot with five plus the Mega Ball. Two times those bases produces the 2× column above: $10, $14, $20, $20, $400, $1,000, $20,000, and $2 million.
The same how-to-play page gives the multiplier odds as 2× at 1 in 2.13, 3× at 1 in 3.2, 4× at 1 in 8, 5× at 1 in 16, and 10× at 1 in 32. The 2× outcome is the one you are most likely to see printed on a ticket. A March 25, 2025 consortium release said the overall chance of any prize in the new game is 1 in 23, improved from 1 in 24 because one Mega Ball was removed. Jackpot odds moved from 1 in 302,575,350 to 1 in 290,472,336 for the same reason.
In California, the how-to-play page says prizes are pari-mutuel and differ from the fixed amounts in the national table. The California Lottery publishes its own Mega Millions prize amounts.
When and where drawings happen
Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time at the WSB-TV studio in Atlanta. The consortium’s security page describes the draw: machines and ball sets are selected and certified, pre-draw tests are run, and the drawing is conducted with lottery staff and an independent auditor. Purchase cutoffs are earlier and vary by state.
The where-to-play page lists 47 localities: 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The FAQ says tickets are not sold outside the United States, and that the game is not affiliated with companies that claim to sell Mega Millions tickets around the world. A prize is claimed from the lottery that sold the ticket. Claim windows differ. The FAQ says the time allowed ranges from 90 days to one year depending on the jurisdiction.
Jackpot choices
The FAQ and the how-to-play page describe two jackpot options. The annuity is one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments, each 5 percent larger than the one before it. That is 30 payments. The consortium says the schedule is built from the cash in the prize pool and the 30-year U.S. Treasury rate, and that the actual payments can differ from the estimates advertised before the drawing. For a $50 million starting jackpot, the consortium’s cash-versus-annuity page illustrates an initial payment of about $752,000 growing to about $3.1 million. Those illustrations scale with the advertised jackpot. They are still estimates.
The cash option is a single payment equal to the cash in the jackpot prize pool. It is smaller than the advertised annuity. Both are before taxes. The tax and payout guide covers reporting and the federal withholding rules that apply when lottery proceeds are large. It is general information.
The consortium’s FAQ on the $5 price says the starting jackpot is $50 million. The March 2025 release said that after a win, the jackpot resets to $50 million rather than the previous $20 million. Just the Jackpot, an older add-on in some places, was retired with the new game.
What changed, in short
The FAQ says the ticket price had moved once before, from $1 to $2 in October 2017, and then from $2 to $5 in April 2025. The October 2017 change is also when the white-ball field became 5 from 70 and the Mega Ball field became 1 from 25. April 2025 kept the 70 white balls and dropped the Mega Ball field from 25 to 24. The price history matters for statistics: a count that starts in 2002 is a count across several different games.
How the statistics on this site treat that history
LotteryMigo reads Mega Millions results from NY Open Data dataset 5xaw-6ayf. The file goes back to 2002. White balls above 70 show up in it. Mega Ball values above 24 show up in it. Using one percentage for “how often 12 is drawn” across that whole file pretends the drawing always used today’s matrix.
The number pages separate three views:
- White balls 1–70 are rated on drawings from October 31, 2017 forward. That is the first drawing in this file of the 70-ball field that is still in use. Drawings before that used other white-ball fields, including a 75-ball field.
- Mega Balls 1–24 are rated on drawings from April 8, 2025 forward, the current 24-ball field. That sample is shorter than the white-ball sample, because the field change is recent.
- Mega Ball 25 has its own page and is labeled historical. It was in the 1–25 field through the April 4, 2025 drawing. It is not in the current game. The NY file’s last 25 in that field is April 4, 2025.
One limit of the file should be obvious on the results page: every Mega Millions row from April 8, 2025 onward arrives without a multiplier. The built-in 2×–10× number is printed on the ticket and published by the consortium, but this open-data file does not include it. Older rows sometimes include the old Megaplier. A blank cell means the file has no multiplier for that drawing. It does not mean the multiplier was 1.
Sources
- How to play — price, matrix, multiplied prizes, multiplier odds, jackpot options, California note.
- Prize matrix — base prizes starting April 8, 2025.
- FAQs — price history, $50 million start, draw times, claim windows, annuity schedule.
- March 25, 2025 news release — overall odds of 1 in 23 and the Mega Ball change from 25 to 24.
- Drawing security — Atlanta studio, Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern.
- NY Open Data, Mega Millions — the archive this site counts.
Confirm a current jackpot, a claim rule, or a state-specific prize on megamillions.com or the lottery that would sell the ticket.