Since April 8 drawing, 32,000 winners have brought home mega value with new 2X-10X multiplier

Olympia, Wash. (May 8, 2025) – Since the new version of Mega Millions held its first drawing on April 8, players in Washington have continued to win big and the game has continued to deliver on its expectations that the game’s recent enhancements would benefit players. In the nine Mega Millions drawings over the course of the first month since launch:

• One person in Washington has become a multi-millionaire by matching the five white balls during a drawing. This person won $2 million by having a 2X embedded multiplier on their ticket, doubling the prize they would have won under the old game matrix.
• More than 32,000 Washington players won $2.63 million in non-jackpot prizes. That’s more than double the $1.1 million those prizes would have been valued at in the old game.
• $324,000 in prizes have been won by Washington players matching ONLY the Mega Ball. That’s nearly triple the amount awarded for the ninth prize tier alone in the new game than the $121,000 that would have been awarded across the first SEVEN non-jackpot prize tiers in the old game matrix.
• More than 10,000 players in Washington have won the minimum prize for a winning ticket, $10 ($5 base prize with 2X multiplier), collecting more than $101,000 in prizes. The winnings at just that $10 prize level – not including the 3X ($15), 4X ($20), 5X ($25) and 10X ($50) prize winners who also matched just the Mega Ball – are more than double the $43,000 that would have been won by ALL the 21,000+ winners who each would have won just $2 in the old game.
• Prizes at the first six non-jackpot levels (where Washington has seen more than one winner) are paying out at a combined 2.5X to 7.5X the value they would have under the old game matrix, meaning prizes being awarded at each of these levels are outpacing the game’s price adjustment.
• The first jackpot under the new matrix was won just four drawings into the new game. On April 18, a $112 million jackpot was won on a ticket sold in Ohio. Under the new game rules, the jackpot was reset to $50 million and is already up to $100 million again for the Friday, May 9, drawing.

“It’s exciting to see how players are reacting to the new game, especially when they win,” said Joshua Johnston, Director of Washington’s Lottery and Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium. “The more they see their winnings multiply, the more they’re understanding the value of the new game and why we made the changes we did.”

Here is a summary of the prizes awarded in the first month of new Mega Millions game drawings:

* New game prize totals are calculated based on the number of winners at each prize level and each multiplier value (2X, 3X, 4X, 5X and 10X), combined with the prize value of each of those subsets. Old game prize totals are calculated based on the number of winners at each prize level and the base prize payout under the old matrix.

Compared to the old game, the new Mega Millions features bigger prizes at every non-jackpot prize tier, improved odds to win the jackpot, better odds overall, a larger starting jackpot, faster-growing jackpots, and no break-even prizes. Prizes in the new game range from $10 to $10 million vs. the $2 to $1 million in the old game. A full prize matrix is available here.

With higher value prizes embedded throughout every tier of the game, tickets for the new Mega Millions game now cost $5 per play. This is only the game’s second price adjustment since the first ticket was sold more than 20 years ago.

Since Mega Millions launched in 2002, it has produced seven winners of billion-dollar jackpots, all in different states. Since the last game change in 2017 more than 1,200 players have become millionaires, an average of three millionaires per week.

Mega Millions is a national game with tickets sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia. Tickets can be purchased at Washington’s Lottery retail locations, which can be found here.

Who Benefits
Since 1982, Washington’s Lottery has generated more than $5.3 billion to support several important state programs. The Lottery’s primary beneficiary is the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account (WOPA), which provides much-needed funding for programs including early childhood education, the Washington College Grant and College Bound program, Washington Award for Vocational Excellence, GET Ready for Math and Science scholarships, and more. These programs help provide critical services and support to thousands of Washington residents each year and help improve their lives.

Beneficiary Fact
Washington’s Lottery is proud to be a financial supporter of the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC), which administers state financial aid programs. WSAC leads a variety of initiatives to increase educational opportunities for students, families, and educators across the state, with a particular focus on increasing equity by reaching communities of color and students from low-income families. The Lottery also proudly supports the state’s Early Childhood Education & Assistance Program (ECEAP), a state-funded pre-K program that helps children become kindergarten-ready by building early skills in reading, math and science. The program works closely with parents to support their children’s health and education.

About Washington’s Lottery: The state’s Lottery offers consumers several types of games, including Mega Millions, Powerball, Lotto, Hit 5, Match 4, Pick 3, Cash POP, Daily Keno and Scratch. For more information, visit www.walottery.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @walottery.

Keep it fun. Know your limit. Washington’s Lottery is an advocate for responsible gaming and collaborates with the Evergreen Council for Problem Gambling to provide resources for those in need. More information is available at www.walottery.com/Responsibility.

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Press Contacts
Dan Miller (Curator on behalf of Washington’s Lottery)
E-mail: dan.miller@curatorpr.com

Xiamara Garza (Curator on behalf of Washington’s Lottery)
E-mail: xiamara.garza@curatorpr.com