Mega Millions Climbs to Richest Amount Since Game Change Slightly Shortened Jackpot Odds
Posted on: October 24, 2025, 12:37h.
Last updated on: October 24, 2025, 12:49h.
- The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night’s drawing is an estimated $680 million
- The Mega Millions jackpot hasn’t been hit since June 27
- Mega Millions overhauled its gameplay in April, with the basic price to play surging from $2 to $5
The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night’s drawing is an estimated $680 million, with the one-time cash option at $318.2 million.
The jackpot for the Friday, October 24, Mega Millions drawing is by far the largest prize that’s been up for grabs since the interstate lottery game overhauled its gameplay earlier this year.
Beginning with the April 8 drawing, the basic price of a Mega Millions ticket more than doubled from $2 to $5. Officials with the Mega Millions Consortium, which operates the twice-weekly game from the Georgia Lottery Studios in Atlanta, said the price increase was to benefit players.
The $5 basic play now includes the formerly optional Megaplier. There are no longer break-even outcomes as a result, as the smallest net win is $10 for simply matching the gold Mega Ball on a 2x embedded multiplier. The April changes, lottery reps claimed, would lead to bigger payouts at every nonjackpot prize tier.
The overall odds of winning the jackpot also shortened slightly from one in 302.2 million to one in 290.4 million. That’s a result of Mega Millions removing one gold Mega Ball, with the pool now ranging from numbers 1 to 24.
Top 10 Territory
Tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot ranks ninth all-time in Mega Millions history. All but two of the top 10 Mega Millions jackpots have been won since 2021.
The Mega Millions jackpot has been rolling since a player in Virginia won a $348 million jackpot in June. The winner opted for the one-time cash option of $155.6 million, which is before federal taxes of 37% and Virginia’s 5.75% take.
The Mega Millions jackpot has rolled over 33 times since, though there have been 9.5 million winning tickets at all prize levels during the run.
Tuesday Wins
A single ticket nearly ended the Mega Millions four-month run during the October 21 drawing.
The play, sold in Illinois, matched the five white drawn balls but missed the gold Mega Ball to claim the $1 million second-tier prize. The player overcame the odds of more than 1 in 12.6 million in matching all five white balls. The win was tripled to $3 million after the ticket’s embedded multiplier hit 3X.
Eleven other tickets matched four of the five white balls and the gold Mega Ball to win anywhere from $20K to $100K, with each ticket’s payout dependent on its embedded multiplier. Only one ticket landed on 10X to win $100K.
In all, there were 436,959 winning tickets across all prize tiers during the Tuesday drawing. The tickets paid out almost $12M across the country.
Tonight’s drawing is at 11 pm EST. Sales cutoff times vary by state, from as short as 15 minutes to as long as two hours before the draw.
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