In Tuesday's drawing, the combined jackpots for Mega Millions and Powerball reached a staggering $1.72 billion. The Mega Millions jackpot, which went unclaimed on Tuesday night, has now risen to $720 million. Meanwhile, the Powerball jackpot stands at $1 billion after no grand prize winner emerged from Monday's drawing.
The Powerball jackpot has been steadily growing over the past few months, with 38 drawings taking place since April's $2.05 billion jackpot was won by someone in California. Only two previous Powerball jackpots have been larger than the current one.
The largest-ever Powerball grand prize was awarded in 2022, reaching a value of $2.04 billion. In 2016, someone won the second-largest jackpot at $1.586 billion.
The next chance for a lucky winner to claim the massive Powerball jackpot is Wednesday evening during the scheduled drawing. As for Mega Millions, it has now gone 26 drawings without a grand prize winner. The most recent winning ticket for the Mega Millions jackpot was drawn in April, with one bringing in an estimated $483 million and another four days later worth $20 million.
Both the current Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots have one-time payout values of $516.8 million and $369.6 million, respectively, totaling $886.4 million when combined.
The combined jackpots have remained above $1 billion pre-tax since early July.
It remains to be seen who will walk away with these massive jackpots, but the excitement and anticipation are undoubtedly building.