Mega Millions Jackpot Almost At $1 Billion
There were no winners for Tuesday's $900 million Mega Millions jackpot, putting the estimated value for Friday's upcoming jackpot at a whopping $965,000,000, the largest Mega Millions jackpot of 2025. But will some lucky player win it on Friday, or is the jackpot going to clear the billion-dollar mark?
How the last draw went down…
Although nobody claimed the jackpot on Tuesday night, there were still over 800,000 prizes won across the USA. Among these players are an incredibly lucky Iowan and a New Yorker who managed to match all five main numbers (but no Mega Ball) with a 3X multiplier, winning $3 million each. Luckier still, a player in Arizona managed to match all five main numbers with a 5X multiplier, earning them an incredible $5 million!
Besides these million-dollar wins, 27 players took home prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars, and a further 529 tickets won prizes worth between $1,000 and $5,000 - not bad at all.
How is the next jackpot decided?
With the Mega Millions jackpot fast-approaching $1 billion, it's worth asking: how is the next jackpot actually decided? According to Mega Millions themselves, the directors and finance reps for each participating state lottery meet every Tuesday and Friday morning to compare sales figures, estimates, and forecasts, and these are used to determine the estimated value for the next jackpot.
Because the process takes place behind closed doors and the values are reached on a case-by-case basis, there's no publicly available formula for us to check, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It gives Mega Millions the option to set their jackpots at nice round, exciting numbers, like Tuesday's $900,000,000 figure. If the values were determined by a strict algorithm, it could have been $898,241,003.45 (for example), which isn't really as snappy.
Don't Miss Friday's Draw!
As mentioned previously, the estimated jackpot at the time of writing is set at $965 million, but if sales are strong, that could potentially change between now and Friday. Make sure you've got a ticket for the draw, as your chance of winning without one is zero! In many states (and even other countries) nowadays, it's possible to participate in Mega Millions online - visit our Tickets Page to find out more. Good luck!
Published: Wednesday, November 12, 2025