The Mega Millions jackpot has nearly reached $1 billion, just in time for Christmas Eve.
The Mega Millions prize on Tuesday is anticipated to be $944 million, making it the fifth largest in the lottery's history. If someone wins on Tuesday, they will get the highest prize ever presented during the month of December.
After no one won the jackpot on Friday, the big prize for Tuesday's drawing increased from $862 million to $944 million, according to the lottery. A jackpot winner in this Christmas Eve's drawing may opt to receive the money in annuitized payments or in a single amount estimated at $429.4 million.
The numbers for the Friday, December 20 drawing were 2-20-51-56-67 Mega Ball 19 Megaplier 2x. Although no tickets matched all six numbers in Friday night's drawing, five tickets won $1 million each for matching the first five numbers.
The Mega Millions organization is describing the upcoming holiday drawing as the "most unusual jackpot year." Since Mega Millions' inception in 2002, there has never been a year when all jackpots won were among the top ten highest prizes granted at the time.
Mega Millions reports that the jackpot was only won once on Christmas Eve.
"We tend to see sales go up during the holidays," Joshua Johnston, the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, told CNN. He added that the increase in ticket purchases occurs while people are out shopping.
He said, “There’s just really not a product on the market for two bucks that will give you an opportunity throughout a few days to just kind of imagine and dream what it would be like to win that sum of money.” “And that's just so much fun to think about, especially around the holidays, when magic is in the air.”