Players win 5X more after game changes
By Kate Northrop
The Mega Millions Consortium announced the results of the first drawing under the new Mega Millions game, in which players won 5X more prize winnings than they would have under the older version of the game.
Last night's Mega Millions drawing was the first draw to include one fewer Mega Ball number and built-in multipliers ranging from 2X to 10X, and it resulted in prize winnings 5X more than players would have won under the old matrix and game rules.
In total, the Mega Millions Consortium calculated that players won over $3.4 million more in the April 8 drawing than they would have originally. The same number of prize wins last night would have previously added up to $840,628, but with the built-in multiplier, 217,904 players won $4,322,599 across all prize levels.
The automatically included multiplier improves all winning non-jackpot prizes by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X, with a multiplier number randomly assigned to each play at the time a ticket is printed.
"We couldn't be more thrilled for our players and for how the new game is being received," Mega Millions Consortium Lead Director Joshua Johnston said in a press release. "As players are coming into grocery stores, convenience stores, and lottery offices today to collect prizes that are two, three, four, five and ten times what they've seen in the past, it's putting a smile on their faces, because that's real, everyday money to most people. This is why the game change matters; it's providing value to our players at every prize level and at every drawing."
Mega Millions just went through a major overhaul this week, which includes a price increase of $2 to $5 per ticket, a built-in multiplier included in every play, and larger base prize amounts in the two lowest prize tiers. While the base prize has not changed for the higher prize levels, the lowest prize a player can win in any prize tier is still at least double than before thanks to the multiplier.
There are several more changes that lottery officials estimate will contribute to larger and faster-growing jackpots.
"It's also important to remember that launching the new Mega Millions is the culmination of three years' worth of work and coordination across 47 jurisdictions, and it's intended to be a fun game that gives players a chance to escape and dream," Johnston added. "We recognize that in today's economic climate, players may be feeling unsettled about the price of everyday goods. Mega Millions is about entertainment, and players should always make sure their basic needs are met before purchasing a lottery ticket."
This is the second price adjustment in the game's history since the first Mega Millions ticket was sold over 20 years ago. The price of a ticket went up from $1 to $2 in 2017.
The game boasts a total of seven jackpot wins exceeding $1 billion, each win taking place in a different state. More than 1,200 Mega Millions players have become millionaires since the last game update in 2017, according to the Mega Millions Consortium, averaging 3 new millionaires per week.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Friday, April 11 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a $72 million jackpot.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $5 each.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
That's very interesting. I wonder if it's because sales were higher than normal because of curiosity over the new game and rules or something else. The lady behind the counter at one store I buy from told me the tickets were selling and one regular customer even bought 5. I bought one today and got a 2X multiplier and am hoping for the best.
There were 5,246,395 tickets sold on Tuesday. The avg tix sold the previous 3 drawings were about 9 million. So it's half as many.
Of course the $ is higher because at $5 each that's approx. $26M compared to the previous $2 being an avg of $18M
this game sounds confusing.
maybe it is worth it if the sequence and pattern is done correct. many of you say combos. I will start to beg to differ.
I'm still not going to buy these $5 tickets until the jackpot is a billion $.
Glad to see that day one sales tanked. Perhaps in part due to no advance plays sitting in the system. Time will tell. The bad part is, the last time there was a $50-something million jackpot on 1/31/25, they paid out $1.5M more than they did on Tuesday. So they're raking in way more money, playing out way less and the increase in the two jackpots was identical. The only party that made out on the price increase was the game itself.
We all shall see what the data is.
I'd be more interested in who spent thar money and walked away with nothing, but more expensive garbage
There are always more winners when a game is new or revamped! Lets see how many winners are produced next year, I would like to go back to 2006, when the game was called the Big Game or something like that and I would on almost every ticket.
The headline to this story couldn't be more incorrect, but it came from the Lie Team over at MegaMillions right after they realized no one believed the first spin, so......sorry to burst your bubble, Lie Team but its closer to 3.8x more winnings than the old matrix.
I'm sure they almost swallowed their own tongues when they looked at the sales numbers yesterday. But like all entities that tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to know, they put their pea-sized brains together and decided that, by golly, if we're charging $5 a ticket, we had BETTER tell the world we gave away 5x more money than we would have before. When the new guy said, "But that's not at all true!", the only reply was, "How did you ever get hired?" Then they got out their box of apples and oranges to convince him it was true.
And again, I'm sorry- but for starters, the 2 lowest prize amounts increased by 3 dollars each. That was $527,460 worth of lie. The fact that there was no such thing as a 10x multiplier until Tuesday required us to back those numbers out and replace them with 3x (the average multiplier), resulting in another $275,275. And finally there was another $214,000 based on the simple fact that 15% (maybe more) of the players were buying the Megaplier already without being force fed.
What they didn't tell you (because it's not exactly what you want to hear) is that there were a lot less winners. Thousands and thousands less. Because people are already up to their ears in price increases everywhere they go these days, and I think it's safe to say most of us are tired of it. And we can't partake in all of this money they're purporting to "give"away if we refuse to buy a ticket.
Sales of new game is always a concern;
My state is offering a promo in May with effective 25% discount
I approach every lottery game as a chance to get lucky and win something, maybe win something way bigger than I could ever dream of earning in my life time.
As such, I don't get so much into the weeds.
All I know is that we have had past winners and we shall have winners in the future and I, by sheer luck and chance, could be that winner in the future and you too could be that winner.
Therefore, I hopefully buy my ticket and wait 🤞
I purchased one on Monday and another on Tuesday and both were assigned a multiplier of X2. I got one number on both tickets. The problem I have with this new version is the cost first of all and the how fair is it that people pay $5, but some win 10X more while others win 2X. So I win $20,000 or $2,000,000 while the more fortunate people with a randomly selected 10X multiplier win $200,000 or $10,000,000. It just isn't fair.
its still a ripoff no matter how you look at it
they paid out more money, but the number of tickets sold was down.
april 8: 217904 total winners. the odds of winning any prize under the new format are 1 in 23, so it was about 5 million tickets sold.
april 4: 248202 total winners. this was when the odds of winning any prize were 1 in 24, so it was about 6 million tickets sold.