One jackpot winner four drawings into the new game
By Kate Northrop
Friday's Mega Millions drawing resulted in the first jackpot win since the updated version of the game went live earlier this month, with one ticket in Ohio scooping a jackpot worth $112 million.
The $112 million Mega Millions jackpot was won by a single ticket in Ohio on Friday, making the ticket holder the first official winner of the enhanced game since ticket prices increased to $5.
It took four drawings for someone to hit the jackpot in the new Mega Millions game, making the lucky Ohio player the third Mega Millions jackpot winner of the year. The lone winning ticket matched all five white balls plus the gold Mega Ball to win the $112 million prize.
The winning numbers in the Friday, April 18, 2025 drawing are 5, 13, 15, 17, and 28, with Mega Ball number 1. According to the Ohio Lottery, the lucky winner chose their own numbers.
"Moments like this are exactly why we reimagined the game," Mega Millions Consortium Lead Director Joshua Johnston said in a press release. "This jackpot win — and the millions of dollars going to non-jackpot winners every drawing — is the result of years of planning, collaboration, and listening to what players want. We're proud of what this game is already delivering for our players and beneficiaries and are looking forward to the future big wins to come."
The winner will choose between being paid $112 million in 30 annually-increasing payments over 29 years or the lump-sum cash value of $49.3 million.
According to USA Mega's Mega Millions Jackpot Analysis, after all taxes are paid, the winner will either receive $67.9 million by the end of 29 years, or $29.4 million in cash all at once. Ohio has a 3.5% state tax on lottery prizes.
Per Ohio state law, the winner has 180 days from the date of the drawing to come forward to claim the prize.
The winning ticket was purchased at Giant Eagle on Mayfield Road in South Euclid, an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland.
For the four drawings at the new $5 price point, the Mega Millions Consortium said, total prizes across all eight non-jackpot prize tiers were $27.5 million, four times what they would have been under the old number matrix. The prize payouts under the old matrix was calculated at nearly $6.8 million based on the same number of winners at each prize level.
This jackpot run spanned seven total drawings. In the April 18 drawing there were 229,771 winning tickets across all non-jackpot prize tiers.
In addition to the jackpot winner, 13 lucky players matched four white balls plus the gold Mega Ball number and won between $20,000 and $50,000. Six of those tickets had the 2X multiplier, five had the 3X, one had the 4X, and one had the 5X. Of those winning tickets with the 2X multiplier, one was sold in California and won $23,872.
With the jackpot being won Friday, the next Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate for Tuesday's drawing is reset to its starting point of $50 million, which was previously $20 million under the game's old version.
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.
An upside to the high ticket cost boycott is that I didn't lose any money in the latest MM run-up.
$5 a loss per line adds up quick on a super low-odds lotto like MM.
Hope you had a hoppy Easter and didn't lose any money to MM.
I might buy a tix if of reached 2 billion, and only 1 at that 🤣🤣
I'm willing to try if it hits $250million cash lump sum.
This jackpot win proves that Mega Millions new game matrix is a major success with lottery players unlike Powerball. Players rarely win smaller prizes in Powerball. Mega Millions new game has better prizes, thereof rewarding non jackpot winners with nice wins.
Mmh, I did not win anything and do not consider my not winning "a loss"
The money spent is from my entertainment bucket so my entertainment did not end up so well 🤣
I am yet to win anything since the game changed, I have played one ticket every draw so that's $20.
Onward we go 💪
I won $25 got the mega Ball 01 with 5X 😋🤭
* l won nothing, no surprise there.
Man, the big kahunas at MM are in panic mode! I wouldn't wanna work in the media department there. Revenue is down and prize money is up, but they won't tell you that when it's easier to try and get us all excited by telling us about less people winning more money with the multiplier.
Based on the number of winners and the overall odds they took in an estimated $26.4M in sales and paid $5.2M in prizes to roughly 230,000 winners for the Friday, 4/19/25 draw, with the jackpot standing at $112M.
A comparable draw on 2/11/25 with a $110M jackpot paid out $2.5 M in prize money to 466,000 winners on sales of $27.6M. Bear in mind that with the optional Megaplier in place, the average ticket price for this drawing was $2.50, NOT $5.
So, revenue AND volume are down with the new, more costly version of the game. Mind you, when a big pot comes along, some of the price resistors will come out of hiding and prop the numbers up. But I'd like to think I speak for the majority when I say that things were fine as they were. Unless you win the jackpot or a 2nd prize, no other prize is gonna change your life- regardless of whether or not you get a 10X multiplier. I'd rather cash a smaller ticket here and there than to be forced to get a multiplier that I actually bought pretty often.
Time will tell if I'm right.
all fixed only one player again when jackpot gets big
It wasn't that big for most who will not play a 5.00 line unless it is 8 to 10 times higher than 112 million. Ridiculous notion to say it was fixed. They want it to go up to the stratosphere but it is not going to climb as fast as they want it to.
112 M advertised but finally it just 30 M ,you get what you don't see lol ...
P.U.: What Stinx????
I'll tell you what Stinx .
Mega Millions $5- ticket Stinx !¡!!
Mark my words ..... this time next year ... PB + MM merger talks due to the 5 dollar fiasco .
Now back to my liverwurst sandwich with ......
The Shag
There is no way in the world they would merge the games.
To me, it's great for more choice that the games are quite different now. I like variety and more options. If you don't like the higher price, why not just play something different?
I wonder what tonight's sales are gonna be. I'm think down. We shall see though..............