Mega Millions
Mega Millions is a $5 ticket on five white balls drawn from 70 and one gold Mega Ball drawn from 24. Every ticket now comes with a multiplier built in, and the jackpot odds are 1 in 290,472,336.
What changed in 2025
If you remember Mega Millions as a $2 game with an optional Megaplier, that game is gone. The price went from $2 to $5 with the drawing of 8 April 2025, and the Megaplier was replaced by a multiplier that comes with every ticket, according to the Mega Millions FAQ. The same page says any winning ticket now wins at least $10, so there are no more prizes that just hand your stake back, and it gives the starting jackpot as $50 million.
The mechanics are the familiar ones. You pick five numbers from 1 to 70 and one Mega Ball from 1 to 24, or take a quick pick. The drawings are on Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern, held at WSB-TV in Atlanta. The game is sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Each of those lotteries sets its own terms. Some sell online to players who register with them, and you have to be physically inside the state when you buy. Claim deadlines run from 90 days to a year from the draw, depending on where the ticket was sold. So the honest answer to most "can I" questions about this game is that it depends on where you live and where you bought.
The prize chart
Your multiplier is printed on the ticket when you buy it, and it applies to every prize except the jackpot. The official prize chart lists the prizes from 2X to 10X with the odds for each tier.
| Match | Prize (2X to 10X) | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| 5 white + Mega Ball | Jackpot | 1 in 290,472,336 |
| 5 white | $2,000,000 to $10,000,000 | 1 in 12,629,232 |
| 4 white + Mega Ball | $20,000 to $100,000 | 1 in 893,761 |
| 4 white | $1,000 to $5,000 | 1 in 38,859 |
| 3 white + Mega Ball | $400 to $2,000 | 1 in 13,965 |
| 3 white | $20 to $100 | 1 in 607 |
| 2 white + Mega Ball | $20 to $100 | 1 in 665 |
| 1 white + Mega Ball | $14 to $70 | 1 in 86 |
| Mega Ball only | $10 to $50 | 1 in 35 |
The chart doesn't print an overall figure. Add up the chance of each tier and you get about 1 in 23 for winning anything. California pays these prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, so there the amounts differ from the chart.
The multiplier odds on the same page are 2X 1 in 2.13, 3X 1 in 3.2, 4X 1 in 8, 5X 1 in 16 and 10X 1 in 32. Weight each one by its chance and the average ticket carries 3X. The 2X is the one you'll see most, on nearly one ticket in two, and I'd expect yours to carry it.
What the $5 buys
I price this the same way I'd price a parlay card: what does it pay, how often, and what's left for the house. Halve the 2X prizes to get the base amounts, multiply each by its chance, and the small prizes are worth about 37 cents at 1X. With the average multiplier of 3X that comes to about $1.12 for every $5 ticket.
That leaves about $3.88 of the ticket paying for the jackpot draw. For that part to be a fair price, the jackpot would have to pay $3.88 times 290,472,336 in cash, which is about $1.13 billion, untaxed and unshared. And the cash is the smaller number: the advertised jackpot is the annuity, and the cash option is "all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool", in the FAQ's words.
The new game is better on the small prizes than the old one, and that is real. A $10 minimum prize, multiplied winnings on every tier and no break-even prizes make the ticket feel less like throwing money down a well. But you pay $5 for it.
Against Powerball
Here is the comparison I'd make before I bought either.
| Mega Millions | Powerball | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per play | $5 | $2 |
| Jackpot odds | 1 in 290,472,336 | 1 in 292,201,338 |
| Small prizes, average per ticket | about $1.12 | about 32 cents |
| Multiplier | built in | Power Play, $1 extra |
The jackpot odds are close to identical, and one game charges two and a half times the other for them. If the jackpot is why you buy, $10 gets you five Powerball plays or two Mega Millions plays, and your jackpot chances follow the count. If you like the small prizes, Mega Millions pays more of them back. That isn't a recommendation, it's a description of two different products. The Powerball page has its side in full, and lottery odds sets out the arithmetic for every game.
The jackpot itself
A winner takes either the cash option or the annuity, which is one immediate payment followed by 29 yearly ones, each 5 percent bigger than the last. The cash value and annuity page explains the two. Which to take is on our annuity or lump sum page, and what comes off it is on lottery taxes. Bigger jackpots sell more tickets, which means more chance of sharing, and lottery jackpots covers how they grow.
One more thing that the game says plainly: "No representative of Mega Millions would ever call, text, or e-mail anyone about winning a prize", in the words of its scam warning. The lottery scams page has the rest.
A $5 ticket twice a week is $520 a year. I'd decide whether that's entertainment money before the jackpot gets big enough to make the decision for me, and if it's become more than that, the responsible gambling page is where I'd go next.