Largest Powerball grand prize in more than a year surpasses half-billion mark
By Kate Northrop
The Powerball jackpot continues its reign as the highest lottery prize of 2025 after it reached an estimated $643 million following the drawing on Monday night.
After no one won the grand prize in the drawing on Aug. 18, the Powerball jackpot climbed well over the half-billion threshold, making it the biggest lottery jackpot this year so far.
Ever since Cheng "Charlie" Saephan won the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot in Oregon on April 6, 2024, the multi-state game has produced 11 jackpot wins. Every single one of those wins has been under $600 million, with the second-highest Powerball prize this year coming in at $526.5 million won by a ticket in California.
The drawing on Wednesday will be the 35th drawing since a $204.5 million jackpot was hit in California on May 31, 2025.
This week's drawing offers a potential winner an estimated $643 million annuitized jackpot, paid out in annual installments over 29 years that increase by 5% each year, or a one-time lump sum cash value of $290.6 million before taxes.
You can weigh the tax consequences of that choice state-by-state by visiting the Jackpot Analysis page at USA Mega, a web site devoted to the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-state lottery games. The feature calculates both the initial withholdings and the final tax burden due at the end of the year, and even can show taxes calculated for different IRS filing statuses.
Players looking for a nearby lottery retailer — or that out-of-the-way retailer with a smaller line — are encouraged to use Lottery Places, the only app for iOS, Android, and Windows that can locate the nearest lottery retailers in every jurisdiction that sells Powerball and Mega Millions. The helpful app can locate lottery stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, much of Canada, and the Caribbean.
Some states offer direct online sales, allowing players to bypass the store and purchase tickets from home. Players can see if they can play Powerball online by tapping the link. Depending on the physical location of the person, the link will either provide access via a licensed butler service or the official state lottery itself.
Butler services provide scanned copies of the purchased lottery tickets securely held on behalf of the customer. In the past, such lottery ticket services were used by people outside the USA to win big jackpots in Oregon and Florida. Oregon recently proposed rules that would limit ticket courier sales to those physically located in the state.
The winning numbers for Monday, Aug. 18, 2025 were 15, 46, 61, 63, and 64, with Powerball number 1. The Power Play number was 3.
The Monday Double Play drawing results were 6, 28, 38, 48, and 55, with Powerball number 23. Double Play is a game option currently available in 22 states that lets you play your numbers in a second drawing for $1 per play, with a chance to win up to $10 million in cash. See How to Play Powerball at USA Mega for more information about Double Play.
Even though nobody won the jackpot Monday, 2 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Arizona and 1 from Texas.
None of the second-prize tickets were purchased with the Power Play option, which would have doubled their prize to $2 million if they purchased the $1 option.
When a Powerball ticket is purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket, a second-prize win is doubled and any other non-jackpot prize is multiplied by the Power Play number drawn that evening. A complete list of prizes available for matching various numbers, as well as the official drawing videos, can be found on the Powerball Drawing Detail page at USA Mega. Lottery Post also publishes the complete list of Powerball Prize Payouts and the Powerball Double Play Prize Payouts.
The official drawing videos can also be found on the Powerball Drawing Detail page at USA Mega.
Power Play is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered in Power Play is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.
Also in the Monday drawing, 9 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $50,000. Of those tickets, 3 were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $150,000, and 2 of the tickets were sold in California, where the prize was worth $31,033 this drawing.
For information about how jackpot amounts are calculated, check out the Lottery Post feature video, How are lottery jackpots calculated?
The next Powerball drawing will take place Wednesday night at 10:59 pm Eastern Time.
Powerball is played in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
Wednesday's Powerball jackpot currently stands as the 23rd-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States.
- Powerball: $2.0401 billion, Nov. 7, 2022 (40 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California
- Powerball: $1.7649 billion, Oct. 11, 2023 (35 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California
- Mega Millions: $1.602 billion, Aug. 8, 2023 (31 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Florida
- Powerball: $1.5864 billion, Jan. 13, 2016 (19 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $1.537 billion, Oct. 23, 2018 (25 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $1.348 billion, Jan. 13, 2023 (25 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Maine
- Mega Millions: $1.337 billion, Jul. 29, 2022 (29 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Illinois
- Powerball: $1.3259 billion, Apr. 6, 2024 (40 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Oregon
- Mega Millions: $1.269 billion, Dec. 27, 2024 (30 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California
- Mega Millions: $1.128 billion, Mar. 26, 2024 (30 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - New Jersey
- Powerball: $1.0798 billion, Jul. 19, 2023 (38 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California
- Mega Millions: $1.05 billion, Jan. 22, 2021 (36 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Michigan
- Powerball: $842.4 million, Jan. 1, 2024 (34 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Michigan
- Mega Millions: $800 million, Sep. 10, 2024 (27 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Texas
- Powerball: $768.4 million, Mar. 27, 2019 (25 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - Wisconsin
- Powerball: $758.7 million, Aug. 23, 2017 (20 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - Massachusetts
- Powerball: $754.6 million, Feb. 6, 2023 (33 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Washington
- Powerball: $731.1 million, Jan. 20, 2021 (35 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Maryland
- Powerball: $699.8 million, Oct. 4, 2021 (40 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California
- Powerball: $687.8 million, Oct. 27, 2018 (21 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - Iowa, New York
- Mega Millions: $656 million, Mar. 30, 2012 (18 rollovers, starting at $12 million) - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Mega Millions: $648 million, Dec. 17, 2013 (21 rollovers, starting at $12 million) - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $643 million, Aug 20, 2025 (34 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $632.6 million, Jan 5, 2022 (39 rollovers, starting at $20 million) - California, Wisconsin
- Powerball: $590.5 million, May 18, 2013 (13 rollovers, starting at $40 million) - Florida
The number of jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 15
- Mega Millions: 10
Top 25 cash value jackpots
Since many lottery winners collect their winnings in cash, the lump-sum payout is an important measure of what a winning ticket could be worth.
The upcoming Powerball jackpot ranks as the 37th-largest cash value in U.S. history, so we're actually just going to show the full top 37 list.
- Powerball: $997.6 million cash, Nov. 7, 2022 ($2.0401 billion annuity) - California
- Powerball: $983.5 million cash, Jan. 13, 2016 ($1.5864 billion annuity) - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $877.8 million cash, Oct. 23, 2018 ($1.537 billion annuity) - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $794.2 million cash, Aug. 8, 2023 ($1.602 billion annuity) - Florida
- Mega Millions: $780.5 million cash, Jul. 29, 2022 ($1.337 billion annuity) - Illinois
- Mega Millions: $776.6 million cash, Jan. 22, 2021 ($1.05 billion annuity) - Michigan
- Powerball: $774.1 million cash, Oct. 11, 2023 ($1.7649 billion annuity) - California
- Mega Millions: $723.5 million cash, Jan. 13, 2023 ($1.348 billion annuity) - Maine
- Powerball: $621 million cash, Apr. 6, 2024 ($1.3259 billion annuity) - Oregon
- Mega Millions: $571.9 million cash, Dec. 27, 2024 ($1.269 billion annuity) - California
- Powerball: $558.1 million cash, Jul. 19, 2023 ($1.0798 billion annuity) - California
- Powerball: $546.8 million cash, Jan. 20, 2021 ($731.1 million annuity) - Maryland
- Mega Millions: $536.6 million cash, Mar. 26, 2024 ($1.128 billion annuity) - New Jersey
- Powerball: $496 million cash, Oct. 4, 2021 ($699.8 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $480.5 million cash, Aug. 23, 2017 ($758.7 million annuity) - Massachusetts
- Powerball: $477 million cash, Mar. 27, 2019 ($768.4 million annuity) - Wisconsin
- Mega Millions: $471 million cash, Mar. 30, 2012 ($656 million annuity) - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Powerball: $450.2 million cash, Jan. 5, 2022 ($632.6 million annuity) - California, Wisconsin
- Powerball: $425.2 million cash, Jan. 1, 2024 ($842.4 million annuity) - Michigan
- Powerball: $407.2 million cash, Feb. 6, 2023 ($754.6 million annuity) - Washington
- Mega Millions: $404.2 million cash, Sep. 10, 2024 ($800 million annuity) - Texas
- Powerball: $396.2 million cash, Oct. 27, 2018 ($687.8 million annuity) - Iowa, New York
- Powerball: $384.7 million cash, Nov. 28, 2012 ($587.5 million annuity) - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $381.1 million cash, Feb. 11, 2015 ($564.1 million annuity) - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Mega Millions: $378 million cash, Jul. 8, 2016 ($536 million annuity) - Indiana
- Powerball: $370.9 million cash, May 18, 2013 ($590.5 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $352 million cash, Jan. 6, 2018 ($559.7 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $349.3 million cash, May 21, 2021 ($516 million annuity) - Pennsylvania
- Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($648 million annuity) - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $341.7 million cash, Jul. 30, 2016 ($487 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $340 million cash, Jun. 7, 2019 ($522 million annuity) - California
- Mega Millions: $324 million cash, Mar. 30, 2018 ($533 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $320.5 million cash, Jul. 24, 2018 ($543 million annuity) - California
- Mega Millions: $319.9 million cash, Jun. 9, 2020 ($414 million annuity) - Arizona
- Mega Millions: $314.4 million cash, Sep. 21, 2021 ($431 million annuity) - New York
- Mega Millions: $292.9 million cash, Jan. 28, 2022 ($426 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $290.6 million cash, Aug. 20, 2025 ($643 million annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
The number of jackpot cash values in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 15
- Mega Millions: 10
* This is the best lottery news for a Wednesday.
And if someone wins depending on what state you live in, the check you will get will be no more than $185,000,000 which is absolutely absurd.
$184,996,000 more than what I have now.am ready
We moved from MN
To IA
from www.usamega.com
Good thing, that saves us a little more than $17.5 Million in Tax.
Moved to IA for work.
Quite the difference between the #2 all time Annuity jackpot and the one for tonight.
Same game, same starting point, same price per ticket
1 rollover difference and a mere $1,121,900,000 less in value
Yep it's not even a top 25 jackpot per the cash value.
My current buy ins at these after tax jackpots and ticket prices are $750,000,000 for Powerball and 2,500,000,000 for mega millions.
Maybe Todd can start a"Jokepot" list starting with this one as the number one Jokepot. There are plenty of other games to play until the Jokepots get high enough 🤑 To buy into
I'd like to see this posted when the cash/annuity are both in the Top 25. Article is premature in my opinion. The cash amount is underwhelming. I won't be playing this Saturday. But good luck to all who are
.
Depends on how many years you have left to play them. Your buy in points are a little too steep for you to get involved in very many of them down the road I believe. You need to play more other games and win one to sustain you until you see one grow to your acceptance level.
The 5% annual increase in payments makes the lump sum even less than it would be with constant annual payments. It pushes more money further into the future to be discounted for interest a longer time.
It makes you think that they are holding back alot of money from the jackpot.. it should have crossed a billion already
Goodbye 1995 Honda Accord. Hello 2026 Lotus Emira.
Got to my Cardiologist's office an hour early today. Took me back almost immediately and said going to stop @ a store on the way home to play Powerball and Mega Millions since I was feeling lucky. Normally don't go out of my way to play there...but it was on the way home and the LED jackpot sign beckoned me to play there!
Somebody from Cali gonna win tonight. I may have to move there.
No, how and why would they pull out and hide money paid into it. The overall interest has somewhat waned with some lottery fatigue thrown in along with they all seem to like hearing when it hits a billion and that perks up their interest so they wait. As if 500m isn't enough for anyone.
I won't let a can of pop, an ice cream cone, or a Starbucks coffee stand between me and $183,120,980.
I am off to get my ticket 🙏
I noticed this. Why has it changed?
* You got that right, and why not? They that contribute the most get the spoils. It’s as it should be.😏
* Let's get real: Every single jackpot won by folks in " other" States got there by the generosity of CA pouring in the lion's share. One can get upset with facts, but facts are facts. 🤨
I'll take it!
Speaking of Jokepots someone at the Michigan State Lottery has a sense of humor
....$73,000,000
Ho hum . . 35 rollovers and not even three quarters of a $ billion $. We should be in $ 1+ billion $ territory already historically speaking .
I have one word to sum up my thoughts: LIVERWURST. Time for a sandwich????
The Shagmeister has spoken.
Peace and prosperity to all!
"Yep it's not even a top 25 jackpot per the cash value. "
What really matters is that the advertised annuity is #23 but the cash that a winner will almost certainly take is only #37. It's getting there, but as of now this one isn't a huge jackpot in terms of the biggest jackpots of the last few years.
"The 5% annual increase in payments makes the lump sum even less than it would be with constant annual payments. "
I'm surprised that you got that completely backwards. With fixed annual payments the advertised annuity would be less than the inflated advertising value they get by keeping more money invested for a longer time. Of course advertising that smaller annuity would almost certainly reduce sales a bit, making both the cash and annuity even smaller after any given number of rolls. They tell us the graduated annuity makes sense because of inflation, but I feel very confident that that's strictly PR about decision that was based entirely on advertising a bigger jackpot.
"It makes you think that they are holding back alot of money from the jackpot."
They put in exactly the same percentage of revenue as they've done for every jackpot since the last format change almost 10 years ago, or maybe since the price increase 13 1/2 years ago. If you want them to put more money in the jackpot give them more of your money.
"Why has it changed?"
Because you also aren't buying enough tickets to make current revenue match past revenue. I'm not sure why the occasional players wait longer before getting into the game, but it's probably very similar to what I expect keeps regular players from spending as much as they used to. 10 years ago an advertised jackpot of $500 million or more was pretty unusual, so players who were waiting for a big jackpot were getting in at 200, 300 or 400. Today we know that if we pass on the 200, 300, and 400 million dollar jackpots there's a very good chance that the same run will give us a few chances at even bigger jackpots. I suspect that another issue with the occasional players is that after they spent a few bucks on a big jackpot and didn't win anything they may have stopped playing completely.
imagine that, another roll over ROFL
"
I'm surprised that you got that completely backwards. With fixed annual payments the advertised annuity would be less than the inflated advertising value they get by keeping more money invested for a longer time. Of course advertising that smaller annuity would almost certainly reduce sales a bit, making both the cash and annuity even smaller after any given number of rolls. They tell us the graduated annuity makes sense because of inflation, but I feel very confident that that's strictly PR about decision that was based entirely on advertising a bigger jackpot."
No, what I wrote is correct. The annual increases in the annuity payment makes the proportion of lump sum to annuity smaller.
Of course, the lump sum is the real number since it's based on sales, and it wouldn't be different with lower/higher interest rates or a different way to structure the annuity. My point is that people see the advertised jackpot and then the large haircut they have to take to get the cash, and that haircut is bigger because of the 5% annual increase "feature".
I totally agree with you but if you concern about them taking so much money after you win you can just take the installments which around $14 million a year for 30 years and net around $420 million if that makes you feel better. It's way better than $189 Million in my state and I'm young so I can deal with living off $14 million a year. Just a thought 🤷🏾♂️
Most players are well over 60 however outside of the instant gratification scratch off card players. Others don't trust them to keep sending the checks yearly which is silly. Most kind of want all that cash at once. It is just a better feeling. Most know they are going to squander most of it anyway and don't care.
While I have yet to set my buy in point that high. I am running a reasonably tight 2nd.
PB - $200,000,000.00 Cash Value
MM - $500,000,000.00 Cash/ $1.11 Billion Annuity
Good luck to all of us this coming Saturday, if you are a participant
I don't know if my post was that clear but I meant those as advertised annuity values.
Anyway good luck to all who are throwing their money away at these fake jackpot levels.
"The annual increases in the annuity payment makes the proportion of lump sum to annuity smaller."
Right, but you're reversing the cause and the effect. The graduated payments inflate the annuity, making it bigger than it would be with fixed payments. The flip side to that is that with fixed payments the proportion of annuity to lump sum is smaller. Every dollar in the prize pool (the cause) buys less annuity value (the effect).
"Of course, the lump sum is the real number since it's based on sales, and it wouldn't be different with lower/higher interest rates or a different way to structure the annuity. "
Exactly. Sales will be whatever the sales are, and the resulting cash would buy a smaller annuity. It's the annuity value that's affected by the payment schedule, not the cash available to buy the annuity. Advertising a smaller annuity would presumably result in smaller sales, too, to the extent that some players base the decision to buy on the advertised annuity rather than the cash value. The smaller sales would then reduce the cash and make the annuity even smaller. Again, that's almost certainly the reason for changing to the graduated payments.
"Most kind of want all that cash at once. It is just a better feeling. Most know they are going to squander most of it anyway and don't care. "
I'm sure people know that they can afford to overindulge themselves, but I think it usually comes as a surprise when they realize that they've managed to squander most of it. Those with more sense and/or more self-control will do their own investing instead of letting the lottery invest it and limit when they can make a withdrawal. Spending the money too fast is a problem, but you can spend more in the first 3 to 5 years than you'd get from the annuity payments without getting into trouble. If you took tonight's $700 million annuity and pay 5% state tax you'd average about $8 million per year for the first 4 years. If you take the cash you'd net about $196 million after taxes. You could spend $96 million in the first month if you wanted to, and you'd still have $100 million in the bank to get you through the rest of your life.