$1.5 Billion Powerball Jackpot Sends Searches Soaring 3,500%

In 45 states, eyeballs are on the Powerball jackpot today. It’s $1.5 billion now and will only continue to rise as more Americans buy the $2 ticket to Saturday’s drawing. Because of the attention on the likely record-breaking prize, a page on Bonus that helps Powerball ticket buyers pick numbers saw a nearly 3,500% increase in traffic yesterday.

The 3,473% rise from Oct. 2 to Nov. 2 on the Powerball Lottery Generator page on Bonus happened when the Powerball jackpot was $1.2 billion.

Since then, Americans queued up online and in person to buy tickets.

As of today, the jackpot is $1.5 billion, says the Powerball site that’s severely slowed – probably due to heavy web traffic from excited lottery ticket buyers.

Once on the site, Powerball informs visitors:

If a player wins Saturday’s jackpot, it will be the second-largest jackpot in Powerball history and third-largest jackpot in US lottery history, only behind the world record $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot and the $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot.

To provide a bit more context for this traffic jolt, Bonus took a look at historic traffic on the random number generator page.

• Yesterday’s traffic was 738% higher than it was on Oct. 25, when the Powerball jackpot totaled $680 million.
• More than 131% more visits to the Powerball Lottery Generator page on Bonus occurred yesterday vs. its second-highest traffic of the year on Jan. 5. At that time, Americans were picking numbers to win a $632.6 million Powerball jackpot.
• As of noon today, traffic on the page was 81% above what it was for the entire day on Oct. 25.

A Rising Powerball Jackpot Lifts Mobile Boats, Too

Americans are using every channel available to seek out information about the Powerball jackpot and buy their tickets to Saturday’s drawing.

Ticket lines are long at convenience and grocery stores. State lottery online sales are soaring. Sites with lottery content are seeing more searches for pre-purchase information.

Reaching into their pockets for their mobile devices, many Americans are opening up the Jackpocket app.

About 2% of national Powerball sales have happened on the lottery ticket app since the prize began building up on Aug. 3.

That’s “a notable statistic, as Jackpocket is currently live in 14 states,” said Peter Sullivan, Jackpocket’s founder and CEO.

Sullivan told Bonus today:

Jackpocket had its best weekend ever leading up to the billion-dollar Powerball jackpot on Monday, with sales 66% higher than the last record in July.

July was when Americans were excited about the nearly $1.4 billion Mega Millions jackpot. 

So far, Saturday’s drawing of $1.5 billion is the second-largest Powerball jackpot. In January 2016, winners in California, Florida, and Tennessee split the $1.6 billion prize.

A Lot Can Happen Before Saturday

At 10:59 p.m. EST on Saturday, the Powerball jackpot may exceed $1.5 billion.

“Powerball” is trending on Twitter. In one of the odder themes, Americans are saying Powerball ticket purchases may increase due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates yesterday.

Powerball jackpot tweets included a range of sentiments.

At 11:54 a.m. EST today, Brandon D. James of New York writes:

Did the math. Powerball actually comes out to exactly 12 dollars after taxes.

At 12:15 p.m. EST, Anthony DeVito of New York tweets:

The next #Powerball winner will be able to buy twitter

However, at 12:16 p.m. EST, Ann M. Machado let everyone know they were out of luck:

I’m winning Saturday! #Powerball

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