New Mega Millions Game Delivers 300% Increase in Non-Jackpot Prizes in First Month Since Launch

Since the new version of Mega Millions held its first drawing on April 8, players have continued to win big and the game has continued to deliver on its expectations that the game enhancements would benefit players. In the nine Mega Millions drawings over the course of the first month since launch:

• 1.89 million players won $51.3 million in non-jackpot prizes. That’s a 308% increase from the $12.5 million those prizes would have been valued at in the old game.

• $18.8 million in prizes have been won by players matching only the Mega Ball. That’s more money awarded for the ninth prize tier alone in the new game than the $12.5 million that would have been awarded across all non-jackpot prize tiers in the old game matrix.

• More than 587,000 players have won the minimum prize for a winning ticket, $10 ($5 base prize with 2X multiplier), collecting $5.87 million in prizes. The winnings at just that $10 prize level – not including the 3X ($15), 4X ($20), 5X ($25), and 10X ($50) prize winners who also matched just the Mega Ball – are more than double the $2.5 million that would have been won by all the 1.25 million winners who each would have won just $2 in the old game.

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• Nearly 60,000 winners at the 10X multiplier level have won more than $3.8 million across the various prize tiers. The 10X multiplier level was introduced with the new Mega Millions on April 8. In the previous version of the game, players could pay $1 extra to add a non-jackpot multiplier to their play that maxed out at 5X.

• Prizes at every non-jackpot level are paying out at a combined 2.6X to 7.5X the value they would have under the old game matrix, meaning prizes being awarded at every level are outpacing the game’s price adjustment.

• Five people have become millionaires by matching the five white balls during a drawing. Three of them won $2 million, one won $3 million and another won $4 million. Winners bought tickets in Michigan, New York (2), Virginia and Washington.

• The first jackpot under the new matrix was won just four drawings into the new game. On April 18, a $112 million jackpot was won on a ticket sold in Ohio. Under the new game rules, the jackpot was reset to $50 million and is already up to $100 million again for the Friday, May 9, drawing.

“It’s exciting to see how players are reacting to the new game, especially when they win. The more they see their winnings multiply, the more they’re understanding the value of the new game and why we made the changes we did,” said Joshua Johnston, Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium.

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Compared to the old game, the new Mega Millions features bigger prizes at every non-jackpot prize tier, improved odds to win the jackpot, better odds overall, a larger starting jackpot, faster-growing jackpots, and no break-even prizes. Prizes in the new game range from $10 to $10 million vs. the $2 to $1 million in the old game.