A single Powerball ticket purchased in Illinois matched all six winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing and secured the $1.04 billion grand prize, ranking as the eighth-biggest jackpot ever awarded in the United States.
Prize Options and Winning Numbers
The winner may select either a lump-sum cash payment estimated at $450.5 million or an annuity totaling $1.040 billion, paid as one immediate installment followed by 29 annual payments that rise 5 percent each year. Both amounts are subject to taxes.
The white balls drawn were 4, 26, 66, 67 and 69. The red Powerball was 9, and the Power Play multiplier stood at 2X.
Stephen Durrell, chair of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Kansas Lottery, congratulated the new winner: “For more than three decades, Powerball has shown that a winning ticket can be sold anywhere the game is played, giving every $2 ticket the chance to change not only a winner’s life, but generations to come.”
Comparison with Past Jackpots and Secondary Prizes
The largest lottery prize in U.S. history remains the $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot claimed in California on November 7, 2022. The second-largest is the $1.817 billion prize won on Christmas Eve.
Four additional tickets sold in Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina matched the five white balls. The Match 5 prize is $1 million in most states; California awards it on a pari-mutuel basis. A fifth ticket purchased in Massachusetts also matched the five white balls and included the Power Play option, doubling the prize to $2 million.
The previous Powerball jackpot was claimed on May 2, when tickets from Florida and Texas split a $20 million prize. Wednesday’s drawing produced the largest Powerball win of the year so far. It was the 44th consecutive drawing in the current run and the first to include players from the United Kingdom after ticket sales launched there on July 21.
The jackpot will reset to $20 million for the next drawing on Saturday. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
