The biggest Powerball jackpots

The billion-dollar jackpots

Amounts are the advertised annuity jackpots; the cash value is what a winner taking the lump sum received, before taxes.

The record: $2.04 billion in Altadena

On November 7, 2022, a single ticket sold in Altadena, California, matched all six numbers and won $2.04 billion, the biggest lottery jackpot in history. The winner took the cash option, $997.6 million before taxes.

California has done remarkably well at the top of the list, with four of the eight billion-dollar jackpots, but that's mostly arithmetic: it's the most populous state.

The first to pass $1 billion: January 2016

Just three months after the game moved to its current format, the jackpot rolled over for weeks and reached $1.586 billion on January 13, 2016, the first lottery jackpot ever above $1 billion. Three tickets shared it, from Chino Hills, California, Melbourne Beach, Florida, and Munford, Tennessee.

Two giants in 2025 and one in 2026

2025 was a year of records. In September, the jackpot reached $1.787 billion and was shared by two tickets, one sold in Missouri and one in Texas. On Christmas Eve, a single ticket from Arkansas won $1.817 billion, the second-biggest jackpot ever.

In 2026, the biggest jackpot so far came on August 12: $1.04 billion, won by a ticket bought at a gas station in Quincy, Illinois. The winner chose the cash option, $450.5 million, and stayed anonymous. It was also the first billion-dollar Powerball jackpot since UK players joined in July.

Why Powerball jackpots get so big

• Long odds. With 1 in 292,201,338 odds per play, the jackpot often goes weeks or months without a winner.
• No cap. It keeps rolling over until someone wins it.
• A huge player base. It's sold by 48 U.S. lotteries and, since 2026, in the UK too.
• Big jackpots feed themselves. The higher the jackpot, the more tickets are sold, and the faster it grows.

How it works in detail is in the Powerball jackpot.

Advertised jackpot vs. cash value

The big headline number is the annuity, paid in 30 installments over 29 years. Most winners take the cash option instead, which can be worth anywhere from about 40% to over 60% of the headline figure depending on interest rates: compare the $983.5 million cash value of the $1.586 billion jackpot of 2016 with the $450.5 million of the $1.04 billion jackpot of 2026.

On top of that come federal and, in most states, state taxes. What a winner keeps is in how to claim a Powerball prize.

Records don't change the odds

Every ticket in a record-breaking drawing has exactly the same odds as a ticket in a $20 million drawing: 1 in 292,201,338 for the jackpot. What changes is the prize, and the number of people playing, which makes it more likely the jackpot will be shared. More on this in Powerball odds.

Frequently asked questions