Mega Millions Jackpot Is $529 Million for Tuesday Night — the Drawing Is at 11, and Friday's Numbers Are Already History
Powerball got Monday. Tuesday belongs to the other drum: Mega Millions draws at 11 p.m. with $529 million on the table — $224.2 million in cash — after Friday's numbers, 27-34-44-53-64 with Mega Ball 1, matched no ticket in full for the 29th straight drawing.
The number first, because the number is the story: $529 million, annuity, or $224.2 million if a single winner takes the cash. The jackpot has rolled 29 times since a Florida ticket — sold at a Wawa in Bradenton — took an $800 million prize on July 28, and Friday's $505 million became tonight's $529 million the ordinary way: nobody won. Friday's drawn numbers were 27, 34, 44, 53 and 64, with the Mega Ball 1; check any ticket still sitting on the counter against them before buying tonight's.
The drawing is at 11 p.m. Eastern, the second of Mega Millions' two weekly draws (Tuesday and Friday). A ticket costs $5, picks five white balls from 1 to 70 and one gold Mega Ball from 1 to 24, and now carries a built-in multiplier that boosts non-jackpot prizes by two to ten times — the game's lower tiers are where nearly all of the actual winning happens, at odds of 1 in 290,472,336 against the top line.
For New York, this is a state-lottery night like any other, which is precisely its scale: the same $529 million is on sale at every lottery counter in the five boroughs, and a jackpot at this level is the kind that turns a bodega line into a conversation. Tonight also sits between two other drums — Monday's Powerball drew with no winner and rolls to Wednesday, so a New Yorker so inclined has a nine-figure drawing on three consecutive nights this week.
Eleven o'clock, then. The numbers will be in this station's file before the night is out — and if no ticket matches all six again, Friday's jackpot starts its climb from $529 million.
