Your One-Stop Mega Millions Guide
When it comes to huge jackpots, very few lotteries can compete with Mega Millions. From its historic $656 million jackpot in 2012 to its all-time highest top prize of $1.602 billion in 2023, Mega Millions has brought constant excitement to the scene due to its fierce competition with rival lotto Powerball. If you want to know what makes Mega Millions tick, continue reading this one-stop guide to this blockbuster draw game.
It's official: Exciting changes are coming to Mega Millions in April 2025! Get ready for bigger, more frequent jackpots, enhanced odds, and a built-in Megaplier to elevate your non-jackpot winnings. And don't worry—you'll still be able to play the upgraded version of this popular lottery at TheLotter Texas just like before!
Rules
Mega Millions's rules will be fairly familiar to most lottery players. Select five main numbers from a guess range of 1 to 70, plus one Mega Ball number from a guess range of 1 to 25. With TheLotter Texas you can pick your numbers manually just as you would with a physical ticket, make use of the randomized Quick Pick option, or use your account's saved lucky numbers. Whatever you do, just make sure to get your picks in time for the draws on Tuesday and Friday at 10:12pm CST.
Understand the rules? You're ready to play Mega Millions!
Odds
The Mega Millions jackpot has famously low winning odds of 1 in over 300 million. But do you know what the odds are for winning a second-place prize that could be worth up to $5 million? What about the odds of winning a 9th place prize, or any prize at all? Become a Mega Millions odds expert with our comprehensive rundown of all the lottery's most important facts and figures.
Jackpots
Mega Millions is responsible for one of the biggest lottery jackpots of all time: an astounding $1.602 billion top prize that was awarded to a single lucky ticket in the August 8, 2023 draw. Unfortunately, not much else is known about that historic win as the winner, very understandably, chose to remain anonymous. Still, plenty of Mega Millions's other big winners have amazing stories, which is why we've collected them in our round-up of the 10 biggest Mega Millions jackpots ever!
Megaplier
Did you know that there's a way to multiply Mega Millions's non-jackpot prizes by up to 5 times? If not, there's plenty of important information you need to got up to speed on when it comes to the Megaplier, Mega Millions's awesome special feature.
Learn about how much this optional ticket add-on costs, what the odds of getting each multiplier actually are, and how much every non-jackpot prize can grow with our Mega Millions Megaplier explainer.
Hot/Cold Numbers
Do you like your lottery numbers hot or cold? In case you don't get what that means, hot numbers refer to the numbers most often drawn in a lottery, while cold numbers refer to the opposite. Some people think that playing hot numbers is a smart idea because they're the numbers that have been drawn the most, while others believe that playing cold numbers is the better move as they feel those numbers are overdo to be drawn. Whatever your opinion on the question is, check out our frequently updated list of the hottest and coldest Mega Millions numbers.
Facts and History
Okay, maybe trivia won't help you that much when it comes to playing the lottery, but since you've made it this far why not treat yourself to some fun Mega Millions facts? Impress your friends at the next trivia night with some deep cut knowledge like Mega Millions's original name, the year of its first draw, and how the lottery came to be sold alongside its rival Powerball by skimming through our Mega Millions fact page.