The 10 Biggest Lottery Jackpots in U.S. History
Lottery jackpots in the United States have entered a new era. Before 2016, no U.S. lottery had ever cracked the $1 billion mark. Since then, both Powerball and Mega Millions have shattered that ceiling multiple times, producing headlines that dominated news cycles for weeks and triggered ticket-buying frenzies that stretched lines out of convenience store doors. Whether you follow the lottery casually or just caught the occasional news segment, the past decade has rewritten the record books.
Below is our ranked list of the ten biggest U.S. lottery jackpots ever, current as of 2026. For each, we include the advertised annuity value, the cash (lump sum) value before taxes, the winning location, and — where public — the story of the winner.
1. $2.04 Billion — Powerball (November 7, 2022)
The largest lottery jackpot of all time. A single ticket sold at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, California held the winning numbers: 10, 33, 41, 47, 56, Powerball 10. The winner, Edwin Castro, took the cash option of approximately $997.6 million before taxes. The prize required 41 consecutive rollovers — the longest roll in Powerball history — before anyone matched all six numbers. It took months for California to release funds because of a legal dispute over whether the ticket had been stolen, a claim that was ultimately dismissed.
2. $1.787 Billion — Powerball (September 6, 2025)
The second-largest U.S. lottery prize ever, and the largest ever split. Two tickets — one sold in Missouri and one in Texas — shared the jackpot, each claiming an annuity share of about $893.5 million, with a combined cash value of roughly $826 million. The Texas winner enjoyed a meaningful edge at tax time: Texas has no state income tax, while Missouri withholds state tax on lottery prizes. It was the first top-ten jackpot split between multiple tickets since the famous three-way Powerball of January 2016.
3. $1.765 Billion — Powerball (October 11, 2023)
Less than a year after the record $2.04 billion prize, Powerball produced another monster. A single ticket sold in Frazier Park, California won the jackpot with a cash value of $774.1 million. The run to this prize took 35 drawings without a winner. The winner chose to remain anonymous through a trust, which California law allowed after a 2022 statute change.
4. $1.602 Billion — Mega Millions (August 8, 2023)
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever. A single ticket sold at a Publix grocery store in Neptune Beach, Florida matched all six numbers. Cash value: $794.2 million. Florida does not require winners to disclose their identity, and the winner never came forward publicly. It was claimed through a limited liability company, a common structure for anonymity and asset protection.
5. $1.586 Billion — Powerball (January 13, 2016)
The jackpot that started the billion-dollar era. This prize was split three ways between winners in California, Florida, and Tennessee. Each ticket claimed approximately $528 million in annuity value, or roughly $327.8 million in cash. The California winners, Marvin and Mae Acosta, claimed their share through a trust. The Tennessee winners, John and Lisa Robinson, appeared on The Today Show the morning after. The Florida winners, Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt, claimed theirs publicly as Florida law required at the time.
6. $1.537 Billion — Mega Millions (October 23, 2018)
A single ticket sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina held this historic prize. The winner came forward nearly five months later (the legal limit in SC is 180 days), claiming the lump sum of $877.8 million. The winner remained anonymous, as South Carolina law permits. At the time, this was the largest single-winner jackpot in history.
7. $1.348 Billion — Mega Millions (January 13, 2023)
Won by a single ticket in Lebanon, Maine. The winner took the cash option of approximately $723.5 million. Maine law allows winners to remain anonymous, and they did. Notably, this prize came exactly seven years to the day after the $1.586 billion Powerball of 2016 — a pure coincidence, but one that trivia fans still cite.
8. $1.337 Billion — Mega Millions (July 29, 2022)
A single ticket sold in Des Plaines, Illinois won the full jackpot. The cash value was $780.5 million. The winner remained anonymous, claiming through a trust.
9. $1.326 Billion — Powerball (April 7, 2024)
Won in Oregon on a Saturday night by a single ticket. Cash option: $621 million. Oregon was one of the newer Powerball states at the time, and this was the state's largest lottery prize ever.
10. $1.269 Billion — Mega Millions (December 27, 2024)
Won by a single ticket sold at a gas station in Northern California, with a cash value of about $572 million. It was the last jackpot of the Mega Millions $2-ticket era before the game's April 2025 redesign — and because California does not tax lottery prizes, the winner kept everything after federal tax.
Patterns in the Top Ten
Put the ten records side by side and some striking patterns emerge. The two games are in a dead heat: Powerball and Mega Millions own five entries apiece. Eight of the ten were won by a single ticket — the exceptions are the three-way $1.586 billion Powerball of January 2016 and the two-way $1.787 billion Powerball of September 2025. The clustering in time is just as dramatic: eight of the ten have been hit since July 2022, a stretch in which 35-to-41-drawing rollover streaks went from historic anomaly to near-routine; only the 2016 and 2018 prizes predate it. Geography is the most lopsided pattern of all:
| State | Top-10 wins | Which entries |
|---|---|---|
| California | 4 | #1, #3, #10 outright; a share of #5 |
| Florida | 2 | #4 outright; a share of #5 |
| Illinois, Maine, Oregon, South Carolina | 1 each | #8, #7, #9, #6 |
| Missouri, Texas, Tennessee | 1 share each | MO and TX split #2; TN a share of #5 |
California's dominance is not luck and not a “hot state” — it's arithmetic. Roughly one in eight Americans lives there, so California sells more tickets than any other jurisdiction, and over enough drawings the winners land in proportion to tickets sold. There is a happy side effect for its winners, though: California charges no state tax on lottery prizes, meaning the largest jackpot in history was won in one of the most tax-favorable states possible — Edwin Castro's $997.6 million cash prize was reduced only by federal tax. (The Texas share of 2025's #2 prize enjoyed the same advantage; Texas has no state income tax either.) The record list is also self-reinforcing: every new record raises the sales frenzy threshold for the next long roll, which is why analysts expect this table to keep churning. You can follow the current streaks building toward it on our Powerball analysis page.
Why Jackpots Keep Getting Bigger
Four forces combine to push modern jackpots higher than any lottery produced before 2015:
- Larger number pools. Powerball (2015) and Mega Millions (2017 and again 2025) both expanded their pools to make jackpots harder to win. Harder wins means more rollovers, and rolls compound.
- Higher ticket prices. Tickets were $1 originally, $2 for Powerball since 2012 and Mega Millions since 2017, and $5 for Mega Millions since April 2025. More ticket revenue means faster-growing prize pools.
- Cross-state participation. Both games sell tickets in 45+ states plus DC, USVI, and Puerto Rico. A bigger sales base means each rollover grows the pot faster.
- Media momentum. Once a jackpot crosses about $500 million, national media coverage kicks in, driving non-regular players into stores. Ticket sales spike exponentially, feeding the prize pool with each unclaimed week.
Annuity vs Cash: Why Winners Almost Always Take Cash
Every prize on this list had an annuity (headline) value and a cash value. The cash value is always roughly 40–50% of the annuity. Almost every modern jackpot winner takes the cash. Three reasons: (1) you can invest it yourself in a mix of assets and often beat the annuity's implied interest rate; (2) the annuity is funded by the lottery's bond purchases, so you're a creditor if the program ever defaulted (unlikely, but not impossible over 29 years); (3) tax law and estate planning are much simpler with a lump sum.
What Winners Actually Take Home
None of the cash values above are what winners actually keep. After 24% federal withholding (with the remaining 13% often owed at tax time for high-income filers hitting the 37% bracket) plus state income tax ranging from 0% to 10.9%, winners typically walk with 50–62% of the cash value. For our full tax breakdown and to calculate your own take-home for any jackpot, use our Lottery Tax Calculator. And for the current jackpot totals and rollover streaks, see our Jackpot Tracker.