See how the Mega Millions jackpot has climbed since March reset

Data Researcher/Curator

WASHINGTON —

The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night’s drawing has climbed to an eye-popping $743 million, the 10th-largest in the game’s history.

It’s the 37th consecutive drawing since the jackpot reset on March 20. The jackpot grew by $36 million from Tuesday night’s drawing.

If a lucky player wins the jackpot, they can choose a one-time cash payment of $323.4 million or opt for 29 annual payments to receive the full jackpot prize.

The previous-largest Mega Millions jackpot won this year came in March, when an anonymous player in Illinois won $536 million.

Last April, Mega Millions changed its game format and increased the price of a ticket, promising better odds of winning and bigger prizes.

Mega Millions raised the ticket price from $2 to $5 and said the new game’s average jackpot was expected to be $800 million or more, up from $450 million. It also increased the jackpot start to $50 million, up from $20 million and reduced the number of Mega Balls in play to 24.

What are the most frequently drawn numbers?

Some numbers have been drawn more often than others since 2017. Among the white balls, number 10 has been drawn 85 times, or about 9% of the time. The second- and third- most frequently picked white balls were 17 and 31, drawn 81 and 80 times, respectively.

Among the gold Mega Balls, 22, 24 and 18 are the top three most common winning numbers.

Use the Get the Facts Data Team’s interactive below to see how often each Mega Millions number has been drawn.

What are the odds of winning Mega Millions prizes?

The odds of hitting the jackpot by matching all six numbers remain slim: 1 in 290,472,336. But there are eight other possible ways to win a prize.

The next Mega Millions drawing is Friday at 11 p.m. ET.