The Five Highest American Lottery Jackpots

Unlike some draws around the world, the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries in the USA don’t have capped jackpots. This means they can keep rolling over and producing astonishingly high jackpots. Here’s a look at the top five in history.

$1.586 billion (Powerball)

It was on January 13, 2016 that American lottery history was written. The Powerball draw had been climbing and climbing until breaking the one billion dollars mark. Players were dreaming of winning such a massive prize and there were long queues to buy possibly life-changing tickets.

The draw produced three winning tickets, each winning $533m. The lucky winners were John and Lisa Robinson from Tennessee, Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt from Florida and Californians Marvin and Mae Acosta. The one-off lump sum payment of $327.8m was chosen by the successful players.

$1.53 billion (Mega Millions)

Two years later, it looked as if that record jackpot might be losing its record status. The Mega Millions jackpot reached $1.53 billion but in October 2018, the massive top prize was finally won. But not claimed until the following year. The anonymous winner from South Carolina took the lump sum payment of $878.8m, the largest single win. They must be glad they let someone go in front of them in the lottery queue.

$768m (Powerball)

The third highest American lottery jackpot was also won by a single player. Manuel Franco from Milwaukee won the $768m in the March 27, 2019 Powerball draw. He took until April 23 to claim his prize and took the $477m lump sum payment.

$758.7 million (Powerball)

2017 was the year in which the life of Mavis Wanczyk changed forever. Perhaps yours will too if buying a jackpot winning ticket from Lottery24. The Massachusetts resident was quick to quit her job after learning of her sensational win, even though she’d had the job for 32 years. The winner received $480.5m before taxes.

$687.8m (Powerball)

This was won in the October 27, 2018 Powerball draw. Two tickets shared the fantastic prize, each receiving around $125m after taxes. The lucky players were Robert Bailey from New York, who said he’d been playing the same numbers for 25 years. The other winner was single mother Lerynne West from Iowa.

Buy your tickets today from Lottery24.