The Powerball jackpot is $1.2 billion for tomorrow’s drawing. Beginning yesterday when the jackpot reached $1 billion and no one won the drawing, searches for the magic numbers more than quadrupled.
It seems hopeful Powerball jackpot winners are having trouble picking six numbers for their $2 tickets. Because as tomorrow’s 10:59 p.m. EST drawing approaches, searches landing on the Bonus page that creates Powerball lottery numbers for visitors are 4.4 times higher than they were on Friday.
However, on Friday, lottery ticket buyers looking at the Powerball Lottery Generator page on Bonus were seeking numbers for the paltry $825 million jackpot.
On Halloween, the Powerball jackpot reached $1 billion.
Now, interest in the $1.2 billion total has Americans flabbergasted and lining up to buy tickets online and at retail stores.
As Quintus Young posts on Twitter at 10:24 a.m. EST today:
Powerball jackpot is getting [too] high. It looks like a bowl of SpaghettiOs.
At the current rate of growth, if no one wins on Wednesday or Saturday, it should be an all-time record jackpot by the draw on Monday, Nov. 7.
Once Powerball Jackpot Hits $1 Billion, Interest Piques
Americans aren’t as excited about Powerball jackpots under $1 billion and they practically yawn when the figures fall below hundreds of millions.
As Michigan Lottery‘s 2020 annual report put it:
The sales increase from September 2018 to September 2019 is primarily due to a significant number of jackpots over $100 million.
National lottery officials noticed when ticket purchases increased and changed the game in April 2020. They “eliminated” the minimum starting jackpot and minimum jackpot increases between drawings. Now, lottery jackpots rise on a drawing-by-drawing basis, according to the Ohio Lottery.
It appears that volatility is paying off.
As of 11 a.m. EST today, hits on the Powerball Lottery Generator page on Bonus were already 10% higher than they were for the entire day on Oct. 25. On that day, the Powerball jackpot was a mere $680 million.
Powerball Prize Recalls $1.4 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot
This historic Powerball jackpot rivals recent Mega Millions prizes.
In July, Americans were excited about a nearly $1.4 billion Mega Millions jackpot. They were buying tickets in stores, on state lottery sites, and via lottery ticket apps.
One such app, Jackpocket, experienced unprecedented traffic before the July 29 drawing.
Jackpocket Founder and CEO Pete Sullivan told Bonus on July 28:
Jackpocket has processed more Mega Millions tickets and signed up more new players in the last 7 days than in all of Q2.
That Mega Millions jackpot was second only to the $1.5 billion prize won in October 2018.
Similarly, tomorrow’s drawing would yield the second-largest Powerball prize in the game’s history. Nearly $1.6 billion greeted the winners of the January 2016 drawing.
Meanwhile, the most popular tweets about the Powerball regard posters promising they will share their winnings with anyone who retweets them. Odds of winning the jackpot may be better from buying a ticket.
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