Today $672 million are being played in Mega Millions: the numbers that have appeared the most this year
The Mega Millions prize reaches $672 million dollars. Know the most repeated numbers and what a statistical analysis concludes about "luck"
Mega Millions once again captures the attention of even people who do not usually play the lottery thanks to its accumulated prize pool of $672 million dollars that will be drawn this Friday, July 17. And no wonder, this figure has already entered the group of the largest prizes in the history of this game. A website did an analysis that could help you choose your numbers with those that have appeared the most in 2026.
The prize pool grew after no one matched the six winning numbers from Tuesday's drawing. The combination that came out was 2, 4, 10, 48 and 56, with the golden Mega Ball 22, but no ticket managed to win the jackpot.
With this new jackpot, Mega Millions reached the tenth largest prize in its history and became the largest lottery prize in the United States so far in 2026. The current jackpot exceeds the $536 million that a player from Illinois won last March.
The winner of this Friday's draw will have two payment alternatives:
What are the “hottest” Mega Millions numbers?
Although many players look for lists of “lucky” numbers, a recent statistical analysis by the Action portal warns that traditional lists often have a problem: they simply count how many times each number has come up without considering how long they have been participating in the game.
The study reviewed thousands of historical Powerball and Mega Millions drawings and compared each number based on how often it appeared versus how many actual chances it had to come up.
In the case of Mega Millions, the number that stands out as the most frequent according to this methodology is 10, which has appeared approximately 30% more times than the expected average. The analysis indicates that this number is the “hottest” considering the current format of the game.
Other numbers have also caught the attention of players due to their historical behavior, although the statistics do not mean that they have a better chance of appearing in the next draw. Each combination continues to have exactly the same probabilities each time the machines are activated.
The study also found an interesting example in Powerball. The number 32 is the one that has been drawn the most times in the history of the game, but when adjusting the comparison for the time each number has been available, it drops to seventh place. The reason is that some older numbers have had more opportunities to appear simply because they have been in the system for longer.
The numbers do not remember previous draws
For those playing Mega Millions this Friday, knowing these statistics may be entertaining, but it doesn't change the actual odds. The chance of hitting the jackpot remains extremely low: approximately 1 in 290.4 million.
The popularity of certain numbers can also influence another aspect. Many players choose birthdays, so they tend to focus on numbers 1 to 31. If a winning combination includes less popular numbers, the winner may have less chance of sharing the prize with others.
Mega Millions is sold in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the United States Virgin Islands, and this Friday's drawing is scheduled for 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).