Mega Millions Winning Numbers — How to Check Last Draw Results
“Mega Millions draws happen Tuesday and Friday at 11 PM ET. Where to find tonight's numbers, the 2025 odds changes, and the biggest jackpots.”
Mega Millions draws happen every Tuesday and Friday night at 11 PM Eastern Time. The official numbers post on megamillions.com within minutes, and state lottery websites publish shortly after. If you're hoping for tonight's numbers before the draw, they don't exist yet — Mega Millions uses physical ball machines, drawn live in Atlanta, Georgia, from WSB-TV's studios.
Mega Millions had a significant overhaul in April 2025. The previous format had players picking 5 numbers from 1-70 plus 1 Mega Ball from 1-25. After the 2025 change, the Mega Ball range was reduced and the ticket price increased from $2 to $5. The jackpot odds remained roughly 1 in 290 million — slightly better than the pre-2025 odds of 1 in 302,575,350, but the price tripled. Mega Millions is the harder-to-win of the two major US lotteries, marginally. The increased ticket price was framed as funding larger starting jackpots and better secondary prizes, which is partially true but mostly increased the operator's revenue per ticket.
Best sources for results: megamillions.com (cleanest, official, instant), the participating state lottery website where you bought your ticket, and the official Mega Millions app. AP, USA Today, and ESPN publish within an hour but pull from megamillions.com anyway. Lottery USA aggregates state-by-state results in one place. Social media reposts are usually right but verify with the official source before claiming any prize. The draw broadcast on WSB-TV runs live, but the website typically posts numbers faster than the broadcast itself reaches your screen.
Mega Millions has nine prize tiers. Match all 5 white balls plus the Mega Ball: jackpot, starting at $20 million. Match 5 white balls: $1 million. Match 4 plus Mega Ball: $10,000. Match 4 white: $500. Match 3 plus Mega Ball: $200. Match 3 white: $10. Match 2 plus Mega Ball: $10. Match 1 plus Mega Ball: $4. Match Mega Ball only: $2. The Megaplier add-on (extra cost per ticket) multiplies non-jackpot prizes by 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x. Unlike Powerball's Power Play, Mega Millions does not offer a 10x multiplier on low jackpots.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot in history was $1.602 billion, won on August 8, 2023 by a group of investors who purchased the ticket in Neptune Beach, Florida. Before that, $1.537 billion on October 23, 2018 in South Carolina, claimed anonymously — South Carolina is one of the few states permitting anonymous lottery claims. $1.348 billion on January 13, 2023 in Maine. $1.326 billion on April 6, 2024 at a Shop-Rite in Neptune City, New Jersey, where the winner faced New Jersey's 10.75% state tax on top of federal. Mega Millions historically reaches higher peak jackpots than Powerball but rolls over for fewer consecutive draws.
Mega Millions winnings are federal taxable income. Federal withholding of 24% applies immediately to prizes over $5,000; the top marginal federal rate of 37% applies at filing. State income tax varies from 0% (Florida, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, New Hampshire) to 13.3% in California — though California specifically exempts lottery winnings from state income tax, making it one of the most favorable winning states despite having high income tax in general. Claim deadlines vary: most states require claim within 180 days to one year. Anonymous claims allowed in roughly 10 states, including Texas, Delaware, and South Carolina.
A few mistakes come up regularly. People confuse Mega Millions with Mega Money, an old Florida-only game with different rules. People think Mega Millions runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Saturdays — it doesn't, Tuesday and Friday only. The Mega Ball is drawn from a separate machine and pool than the white balls, so a Mega Ball of '5' does not mean any white ball can't also be '5' — duplicates across the two pools are allowed and not unusual. And the jackpot is always advertised as the 30-year annuity value; the cash option is roughly half that, before any tax.
Almost every Mega Millions winner takes the cash option rather than the 30-year annuity. The cash option is the present value of all the annuity payments, calculated based on current interest rates. When rates are high, the cash percentage is higher (around 60%). When rates are low, it falls (around 50%). For the $1.602 billion Florida win, the cash option was approximately $792 million before federal taxes. After 37% federal plus Florida's 0% state tax, the winner kept roughly $500 million. The 30-year annuity would have paid the full $1.602 billion gross, with each annual payment taxed in the year it arrived — but virtually no major winner ever picks this.
Once you have tonight's Mega Millions numbers, the practical move is comparing them against the combination you actually play. If you've been playing the same 5-plus-Mega-Ball for years, test your Mega Millions ticket against the full archive and see if it has ever come up. The honest answer is almost always no, but at least you'll know — guessing is worse than data. The complete Mega Millions history since 1996 is searchable in about 10 seconds. Tonight's numbers become one more entry tomorrow.