Mega Millions Winning Numbers For Tuesday, Oct 23: $1.6B Jackpot

The record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot was won on Tuesday night. The jackpot was up to $1.6 billion for the Tuesday, October 23 drawing. That means the winner could have an option to take a $913.7 million lump sum, cash payout. It was the largest jackpot in history.

Winning numbers: The winning Mega Millions numbers for Tuesday, October 23 were: 5, 28, 62, 65 and 70. The gold Mega ball was 5. The Megaplier was 3.

Jackpot winners have two options: Take a lump sum, one-time payout or take annual installment payments. As mentioned before, the lump sum payout is now $904 million. Most people take the lump sum payout.

"Watching the jackpot numbers soar is exciting for everyone. It's exciting for players to dream about what they would do if they won, and it's exciting for us waiting to see who the big winner will be," Ohio Lottery Director Dennis Berg said in a statement.

The last Mega Millions jackpot was won on July 24. An 11-member office pool in Santa Clara County, California claimed that $543 million jackpot. That was the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket. Mega Millions has been breaking records all year it seems.

So far, this year, four Mega Millions jackpots have been won. First, a Florida player won a $451 million prize on January 5, then a $533 million jackpot was won on March 30, by a New Jersey player; a $142 million jackpot was won in Ohio on May 4; and then the Californians won their $543 million jackpot on July 24.

A single play costs $2. Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 (the Mega Ball number). Players can also use an easy pick feature, where a computer selects random numbers for them. To win the jackpot, a player much match all six numbers.

Mega Millions is played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings take place at 11 p.m. ET each Tuesday and Friday. Want to know if Mega Millions is played near you? Check out the Mega Millions website and find out!

Jackpots have been won in 22 of the 44 participating states. All of the original Mega Millions participating states have seen a resident win at least one jackpot.

After a jackpot is won, the Mega Millions game automatically resets to $40 million and grows with each lottery where there is not a winning jackpot ticket sold.

History of Mega Millions

The Mega Millions game began in 1996 as the Big Game, according to the Mega Millions website. The original Big Game was only played across six states: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia.

In a neat bit of trivia, there was actually a winner in the very first Big Game (aka Mega Millions) drawing. On May 17, 2002, someone got lucky in Illinois and took home a $28 million jackpot. Just one week later a second jackpot was won. That means there were two jackpot winners in three drawings.

To the shock of no one, the game grew rapidly from from 1996 through 2002, expanding into New York, New Jersey and Ohio. Once the Big Game had begun to spread across the East Coast, it was renamed Mega Millions.

By January 2010, 23 more states joined the Mega Millions game. The craze had spread to the West Coast. As mentioned before, in late 2018, Mega Millions is now played in 44 states nationwide, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C.

Since its inception, there have been 179 Mega Millions jackpots that have been won by 203 individual tickets. Roughly 20 jackpots have been shared between two or more winning tickets, the organization said.

Mega Millions launched a new prize matrix in 2013 and became the first widespread lottery game to offer a second-place prize, with rewards reaching up to $5 million.

Here is a list of the 10 largest jackpots in Mega Millions history (prior to the current jackpot):

1. $656 million, won on March 30, 2012 — Three winning tickets sold in Kansas, Illinois, Maryland
2. $648 million won on December 17, 2013 — Two winning tickets sold in California and Georgia
3. $543 million won on July 24, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in California
4. $536 million won on July 8, 2016 — One winning ticket sold in Indiana
5. $533 million won on March 30, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in New Jersey
6. $451 million won on January 5, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in Florida
7. $414 million won on March 18, 2014 — Two winning tickets sold in Florida and Maryland
8. $393 million won on August 11, 2017 — One winning ticket sold in Illinois
9. $390 million won on March 6, 2007 — Two winning tickets sold in New Jersey and Georgia
10. $380 million won on January 4, 2011 — Two winning tickets sold in Idaho and Washington

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