A jackpot of $1.35 billion was available in Friday’s Mega Millions draw, the largest on offer since October 2018 when one lucky couple scooped $1.5 billion.
The draw took place on Friday at 11 p.m. ET, with numbers 30, 43, 45, 46 and 61 pulled out, plus 14 for the golden mega ball and X2 as the optional Megaplier.
One person in Maine won the jackpot, securing $1.35 billion which they can receive in 30 annual payments. Alternatively, the winner could select the cash option and immediately receive a one-off payment of $724.6 million.
An additional 14 players scooped up the second-place prize of $1 million, though none of these had the Megaplier.
The third-place prize of $10,000 was won by 164 players, with 27 of these receiving $20,000 as they had purchased the Megaplier.
Another 11,198 players won $200, with 1,922 of these having the Magaplier, and thus seeing their winnings doubled.
The smallest prize, of $2, was won by 4,681,849 players, including 828,701 with the Megaplier.
Friday’s jackpot was the second biggest ever given out by Mega Millions, only beaten on October 23 2018, when the jackpot of $1.5 billion was claimed by an unnamed couple in South Carolina.
Thanks to their win Friday’s victor is now wealthier than the entire Caribbean nation of Grenada, which had a population of 124,000 in 2021 according to the World Bank.
Figures from the International Monetary Fund show Grenada had a net wealth of $1.04 billion, in 2020.
The winner will have enough net wealth to buy a superyacht like the Topaz, a 483-foot ship with three swimming pools retailing at $527 million.
On Tuesday, January 10 some 6.1 million Mega Millions players secured a prize, but none won the $1.1 billion jackpot, causing it to be rolled over to this Friday.
The previous Friday three lucky punters won $4 million each for matching the first five balls. These tickets were sold in Arizona, Mississippi and South Dakota.
What is Mega Millions and How to Play?
Mega Millions draws take place twice a week, each Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET.
Five white balls are pulled out, numbering from 1 to 70, along with a yellow Mega Ball numbered between 1 and 25.
A standard Mega Millions ticket costs £2, with most states also selling a Megaplier version which boosts winnings by between two and five times. See the Mega Millions website for more information.
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