For only the sixth time in less than six years, the Mega Millions jackpot has topped $1 billion.

It’s been 30 drawings without a jackpot win, pushing the top prize to an estimated $1.1 billion at the time of the next drawing on Tuesday, March 26th. The last drawing was held Friday night when no tickets matched all six numbers – white balls 3, 8, 31, 35 and 44, plus the gold Mega Ball 16. If the jackpot is won next Tuesday, it will be the fifth-largest prize in the history of the game.

Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has now ventured into billion-dollar territory six times. To date, five jackpots exceeding $1 billion have been awarded – all in different states. South Carolina was the first in 2018, followed by Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine in early 2023 and Florida last August. The latter prize is the game’s current record jackpot at $1.602 billion.

Tickets are $2 each and are sold in 45 states but not in Alabama. In most jurisdictions, players can add the Megaplier for an additional $1 to multiply their non-jackpot prizes. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each Mega Millions ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold.

Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize is 1 in 24; the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

The top Mega Millions jackpots:

• $1.602 billion – 8/8/2023 – 1-FL
• $1.537 billion – 10/23/2018 – 1-SC
• $1.348 billion – 1/13/2023 – 1-ME
• $1.337 billion – 7/29/2022 – 1-IL
• $1.100 billion (est) – 3/26/2024 – ?
• $1.050 billion – 1/22/2021 – 1-MI
• $656 million – 3/30/2012 – 3-IL, KS, MD
• $648 million – 12/17/2013 – 2-CA, GA
• $543 million – 7/24/2018 – 1-CA
• $536 million – 7/8/2016 – 1-IN