What is Mega Millions?

Mega Millions is a popular lottery game in the United States. It is a multi-state lottery game that is offered in 45 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The game is played by selecting six numbers from two separate pools of numbers. The first pool contains 70 numbers and you need to select five numbers from that pool. The second pool (the Mega Ball) contains 25 numbers and you need to select one number from that pool.

The game draws five white balls from the first pool and one yellow ball, called the Mega Ball, from the second pool. The jackpot is won by matching all six numbers correctly, in any order. As well as the jackpot, there are another eight prize levels based on how many of the winning numbers you match.

Mega Millions draws take place twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings. The jackpot starts at $20 million and increases each time it is not won. The largest Mega Millions jackpot to date was $1.537 billion, won on October 23, 2018, by a single ticket sold in South Carolina after 25 rollovers.  In this instance, the winners took the cash option of $877.7 million.