POWERBALL® is celebrating its 30th birthday this week! Ticket sales began on April 19, 1992, for the game’s first drawing held on April 22, 1992. In addition to creating 1.75 billion prize winners over the past three decades, the game has generated more than $27 billion to fund vital public services and programs across the country.
“For 30 years, Powerball has been America’s jackpot game,” said May Scheve Reardon, Powerball Product Group Chair and Missouri Lottery Executive Director. “We want to thank our players who have joined us on this journey and dreamed of winning Powerball. Every Powerball ticket purchased has raised money to benefit good causes supported by U.S. lotteries such as education, veterans, senior citizens, and environmental conservation.”
The Powerball game has produced some of the biggest wins in lottery history, including the world record $1.586 billion jackpot set in January 2016. Other notable snapshots from the past 30 years include:
• Jackpot-winning tickets: 393
• $2 million-winning tickets: 470
• $1 million-winning tickets: 2,424
• Overall prize-winning tickets: 1.75 billion
• Total jackpot prizes paid: $25 billion
• Total lower-tier cash prizes: $23 billion
The Powerball jackpot has been hit twice so far in 2022. Two tickets, sold in California and Wisconsin, split a $632.6 million jackpot in the January 5 drawing. Then, a ticket in Connecticut won a jackpot worth $185.3 million in the February 14 drawing.
In August 2021, Powerball launched a new Monday drawing, which expanded the weekly lineup of Powerball drawings to three nights a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. In addition, a new $1 add-on feature called Double Play® was launched in select jurisdictions that gives players another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing with a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball tickets are $2 per play. Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of all proceeds from the sale of a Powerball ticket remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold. Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. For more information, visit Powerball.com.