If you checked your numbers on Monday night and felt your heart skip a beat — you weren't alone. The Powerball jackpot rolled again after no ticket matched all six numbers, sending the top prize into rare billion-dollar territory.
The drawings and the numbers
Saturday's drawing (Dec. 20) produced the numbers 4-5-28-52-69 with a Powerball of 20 and a Power Play of 3X. No grand-prize winner meant the pot climbed into the $1.6 billion range heading into Monday.
On Monday, Dec. 22, the winning sequence was 3-18-36-41-54 and the Powerball was 7 (Power Play: 2X). Again, no ticket hit the jackpot. That pushed the advertised prize to an estimated $1.7 billion for the next drawing — an eye-popping lump-sum estimate of about $781.3 million before taxes.
Who won something (even if not the jackpot)
Even without a jackpot winner, the recent drawings produced a long list of big prizes:
- Monday's drawing produced multiple Match 5 winners (the five white balls, without the Powerball) — including two $1 million tickets in New York and single $1 million winners in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. In total, that’s a double-digit number of million-dollar payouts from that drawing.
- The same drawing also produced dozens of mid-tier prizes: 28 tickets that won $100,000 and 107 tickets worth $50,000.
- From the Dec. 20 drawing, a third-prize ticket worth $50,000 was sold at a Tops Friendly Markets at 2101 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo — a small-town detail that reminds you these big runs produce winners all over.
Why the jackpot keeps growing
Powerball drawings are held three nights a week (around 10:59 p.m. ET on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays). When no ticket matches all five white balls plus the red Powerball, the annuitized jackpot rolls over and the advertised prize grows. Players who do match everything can choose an annuity — 30 payments over 29 years that rise by 5% annually — or a one-time lump-sum cash payment. All published jackpot and cash estimates are before taxes.
Odds of snagging the grand prize remain extremely long: about 1 in 292.2 million. A single play costs $2 in participating jurisdictions (45 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
Officials also noted this run is historic for its length: Monday’s drawing was part of a jackpot cycle that reached record numbers of consecutive drawings without a top-prize winner, and the next drawing would add yet another to that streak.
How this fits into Powerball history
Big jackpots are becoming a recurring story. The largest Powerball prize on record is the $2.04 billion ticket sold in California (Nov. 7, 2022). Earlier in 2025, two tickets split a $1.787 billion prize (Sept. 6). Reaching the billion-dollar range more than once in a year is unusual, but not unprecedented.
A note about play and safety
Lotteries are a form of entertainment, but for some they become harmful. If you or someone you know struggles with gambling, national and state helplines can help — or check your state lottery or problem-gambling resources for local support.
This run is a reminder that even without a single jackpot winner, lots of lives can change with smaller prizes — and that the math behind the mega-jackpots rarely favours any individual player. Still, for millions, the ticket is the thrill; for a few, it becomes a life-altering windfall.