Mega Millions Jackpot Soars To $970M; CT's Top Ticket Yields $10K

CONNECTICUT — No one won the $865 million Mega Millions jackpot drawing on Tuesday, Jan. 19 and this means the grand prize has risen to $970 million for Friday, Jan. 22.

In Connecticut, 65,989 "winning" tickets were sold, but the top prize was only for $10,000, according to the Connecticut Lottery. The best we could do was having one ticket match four numbers and the Mega Ball.

Additionally, 11 tickets sold in Connecticut produced $1,000 winners and 44 people won $500. The rest of us won between $2 and $400.

The winning Mega Millions numbers for the Tuesday, Jan. 19 drawing were: 10, 19, 26, 28 and 50, plus the gold Mega Ball 16. The Megaplier was 2.

The winning Mega Millions numbers are drawn every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern time, with results usually posted within 5 minutes. Check with your state lottery for the cut-off time to purchase tickets before a drawing. Mega Millions tickets cost $2 each.

The largest lottery jackpot in history was a $1.586 billion Powerball prize, which was split by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in January 2016.

A Wisconsin player last won the Mega Millions jackpot on Sept. 15, 2020, when the prize was $120 million.

To win the Mega Millions jackpot, a player must match all five white balls in any order and the gold Mega Ball number.

You can buy Mega Millions tickets from lottery retailers/agents in 45 states plus the District of Columbia and the U. S. Virgin Islands; a total of 47 jurisdictions. See the Where To Play page for details.

These are the five largest Mega Millions jackpots in the game's history:

• $1.537 billion, Oct. 23, 2018
• $656 million, March 30, 2012
• $648 million, Dec. 17, 2013
• $543 million, July 24, 2018
• $536 million, July 8, 2016

Winners can choose to either have the full jackpot amount paid out in 30 installments over 29 years, or winners can take one lump sum payment that is smaller than the actual total.