Explore what goes into calculating a Powerball jackpot, along with other insights and odds for any Powerball player to know when purchasing a ticket.
Most everyone is familiar with ebbs and flows of Powerball jackpot prizes, even if they're not avid players. It's generally understood that with each weekly drawing, there's a chance no one has a winning ticket, driving the prize amount higher and higher. Then one day, the jackpot total takes a sharp dip as winning tickets emerge and winners claim their prizes. But how are Powerball jackpots calculated in the first place? What factors are at play in determining starting jackpot prizes and swelling jackpot prizes? There is a calculated system and structure behind how Powerball prizes are determined. And it’s a little more organized than you might think.
The Starting Powerball Jackpot
The Powerball jackpot starts at a guaranteed minimum of $20 million after each reset, which happens when no one wins the grand prize in a drawing. This base amount is funded by ticket sales and determines the starting point for the next jackpot.
Ticket Sales Influence the Size of Each Jackpot Bump
One of the biggest factors that drives the size of the jackpot is ticket sales. For each drawing, a portion of the revenue from tickets sold goes into the prize pool. The more people who buy tickets, the larger the jackpot grows. In fact, during weeks with especially high sales, like when the jackpot climbs above $500 million, ticket sales can increase drastically, leading to much faster growth.
The biggest Powerball jackpot win (as of right now) was on November 7, 2022. The $2.04 billion saw a record-setting number of tickets sold, leading up to the historic drawing. For that particular draw, there were over 11.2 million winning tickets at various prize levels, totaling roughly $98.1 million in cash prizes. This run had been ongoing for three months, with ticket sales surging as the jackpot grew. The final sales pushed the jackpot to $2.04 billion from the original estimate of $1.9 billion.
How Much Do Powerball Tickets Cost?
Powerball tickets are $2 each, without add-ons. In participating areas, Power Play options cost an additional $1, and the Double Play option is an additional $1 to that. This means that each ticket can potentially contribute $2-$4 or more to a particular drawing. Multiply that by however many people buy one ticket or more for each drawing, and the Powerball piggy bank gets big, fast!
Double Play vs. Power Play
The Power Play option is an addition that you can purchase and add to any Powerball ticket. Power Play is an extra number selected randomly from a pool of 42 numbers and marked with a multiplier that ranges anywhere from 2x to 5x. A 43rd number is a 10x multiplier, which is only introduced into the pool for jackpots under $150 million. This increases not only the jackpot itself but also other non-jackpot wins.
Double Play is a newer feature in some states. This feature cannot be stacked with Power Play. It creates the option for that particular non-winning ticket to be entered into a separate Powerball drawing with a top cash payout prize of $10 million.
How Powerball Has Changed Over the Years
In 2015, Powerball increased the number of white balls in its pool from 59 to 69 and reduced the number of red balls from 35 to 26. This actually improved the overall odds to win. Before this change, odds were about 1 in 32 that a player would win any of the various prize amounts. Now, the odds of winning any size Powerball prize hovers at a 1 in 25.
The odds to win the Powerball jackpot prize is about 1 in 292 million. So, when the Powerball jackpot starts rising, know that your ticket sales can contribute to its continued growth. And understanding the odds and calculations makes you a more informed player. But have some fun with it! Get in on the thrill of the odds and maybe you'll be the next Powerball winner story in the headlines.