The wait is over: the winning numbers for the estimated $1.58 billion Mega Millions jackpot have officially been drawn.
Ahead of Tuesday’s drawing, the jackpot jumped to $1.58 billion, making it the largest in the game’s history, and one of the largest lottery prizes in U.S. history.
The winning numbers drawn on August 8 are 13, 19, 20, 32, and 33, and Mega Ball 14. The Megaplier was 2X.
The Mega Millions jackpot hasn’t been hit since April when a $20 million prize was won by a ticket sold in Syracuse, New York, just four days after a $483 million Mega Millions jackpot was won by a ticket sold in Queens.
After Friday’s drawing resulted in no winner, the current jackpot eclipsed a $1.537 billion prize won by a ticket in South Carolina five years ago to become the largest in the game’s history. If there is no winner in Tuesday’s drawing, the jackpot would need to grow by about $460 million to become the largest lottery prize in U.S. history:
- $2.04 billion (Powerball): Nov. 7, 2022; California
- $1.586 billion (Powerball): Jan. 13, 2016; California, Florida, Tennessee
- Est. $1.58 billion (Mega Millions): Aug. 8, 2023
- $1.537 billion (Mega Millions): Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina
- $1.348 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 13, 2023; Maine
- $1.337 billion (Mega Millions): July 29, 2022; Illinois
- $1.08 billion (Powerball): July 19, 2023; California
- $1.050 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 22, 2021; Michigan
- $768.4 million (Powerball): March 27, 2019; Wisconsin
- $758.7 million (Powerball): Aug. 23, 2017; Massachusetts
Should you be the lucky winner, you’ll be able to either take the cash lump sum payment or the annuity option, which offers one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that grow by 5% each time. Whichever you choose, you’ll still walk away with less than $1.58 billion.
You may want to think twice before collecting the cash option though. Winners of giant jackpots nearly always take the cash, and financial advisers say that might be a mistake.
You have a 1 in 24 chance of winning any prize while playing Mega Millions — because there are nine total ways to win — but your odds at landing the jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.
Winner or not, the next Mega Millions drawing will be at 11 p.m. ET on Friday. Tickets start at $2 each, and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.