Mega Millions Players See Mega Increase in Nonjackpot Prizes Since Price Hike
Posted on: May 12, 2025, 11:03h.
Last updated on: May 12, 2025, 01:09h.
- Mega Millions raised its ticket price to $5 last month
- The interstate lottery game says the price hike has benefited non-jackpot winners
- The multiplier is included with every $5 play
The price of a basic Mega Millions ticket increased from $2 to $5 beginning with the drawing for April 8, 2025. Since then, officials with the lottery game say players have won significantly more money than they would have had the price hike not been implemented.
A press release from Mega Millions explains that players have jointly won $51.3 million in nonjackpot level prizes since the April 8 drawing. Under the game’s previous format and $2 game admission, those prizes would have amounted to only $12.5 million — a 308% difference.
Since the new version of Mega Millions held its first drawing on April 8, players have continued to win big and the game has continued to deliver on its expectations that the game enhancements would benefit players,” the Mega Millions statement read.
Approximately 1.89 million players have won a prize since April 8, with more than 587K of those winning tickets claiming the minimum prize of $10 ($5 base prize with 2X multiplier).
“The winnings at just that $10 prize level — not including the 3X ($15), 4X ($20), 5X ($25), and 10X ($50) prize winners who also matched just the Mega Ball — are more than double the $2.5 million that would have been won by all the 1.25 million winners who each would have won just $2 in the old game,” the lottery game explained.
New Price, Odds, Payouts
The 2025 format change to Mega Millions did away with the optional $1 add-on Megaplier that was previously offered in most of the 45 participating states, Washington, DC, and the United States Virgin Islands. Now, every $5 ticket comes with the multiplier automatically included, which stands to double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, or decuple the player’s prize.
The multiplier being permanently implemented did away with break-even prizes, or players simply winning back their bet. Under the old format, a player who purchased a $2 ticket without the Megaplier would win $2 for simply matching the gold Mega Ball.
The 2025 Mega Millions game adjustment also slightly improved players’ odds of hitting the jackpot by removing one Mega Ball to reduce the number of gold balls to 24. The odds of matching only the Mega Ball are one in 35. Should the 10X multiplier hit (odds of one in 32), the $5 play returns $50. Each ticket’s odds of winning the jackpot shortened from one in 302.5 million to approximately one in 290.5 million.
“It’s exciting to see how players are reacting to the new game, especially when they win,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium. “The more they see their winnings multiply, the more they’re understanding the value of the new game and why we made the changes we did.”
With the multiplier now automatic for every play, nonjackpot prizes range from $10 to $10 million compared to $2 to $1 million in the old format.
Jackpot Growing Faster
Another key component of the Mega Millions alteration is that the game’s jackpot grows faster.
After the jackpot hits, the top prize resets to $50 million instead of $10 million under the previous arrangement. With each ticket costing $5 instead of $2, the jackpot grows much faster than it formerly did.
The advertised jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing is an estimated $100 million, with a cash option of $49.4 million.
Last Comment ( 1 )
Yeah big deal, more people won $10