The Times Square Ball Drop may have happened three days ago, but Mega Millions is keeping the sphere rolling with its $785 million jackpot. Every previous time the jackpot reached these heights, it rolled on to surpass $1 billion, Mega Millions said.
On New Year’s Eve, Mega Millions published a press release about the drawing happening at 11 p.m. EST today:
On only three previous occasions has the Mega Millions jackpot gone beyond $700 million, and all three times those rolls continued on past $1 billion. One was in January just two years ago, when the jackpot was eventually won in Michigan at $1.05 billion on January 22, 2021. Will history repeat itself with another billion-dollar January win?
The other two post-one-billion jackpots happened during the months of July and October. They were the record-shattering $1.5 billion prize won on Oct. 23, 2018. Another stratospheric jackpot occurred on July 29, 2022, for $1.3 billion. (A Powerball jackpot outdid all three, totaling $2.04 billion and being awarded a day late – on Nov. 8, 2022 – due to overwhelming lottery ticket purchases.)
Much like those previous Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots, the anticipation leading up to this drawing caused Americans buying the lottery tickets to first do research on Bonus.
Thousands Use Bonus Tool to Create Lottery Numbers
Since the last Mega Millions winner received a prize on Oct. 14, the jackpot’s been growing. So have searches on the Bonus Mega Millions Generator page.
The page creates random numbers that Mega Millions lottery ticket buyers can then use to make their purchases.
Comparing the usual drop in interest that happens after someone wins the lottery jackpot to yesterday, searches on the Bonus page increased by more than 508%. That’s using figures from Oct. 15, 2022, and yesterday.
Meanwhile, tomorrow’s $291 million Powerball jackpot has 17% less interest, gauged by views of the Bonus Powerball Lottery Generator page.
Perhaps Mega Millions started the New Year’s ball rolling and Powerball will catch up and catapult 2023’s lottery jackpots into the ionosphere.
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