10 Largest Lottery Jackpots in the World

Countless people play the lottery in hopes of hitting it big and never having to worry about money again. While the odds of winning are extremely low, many hopefuls purchase tickets anyway, even if it’s just for fun.

High-tier lotto games like Powerball and Mega Millions roll over cash prizes that haven’t been won and accumulate insanely high value. So, just how large have these lottery jackpot values gotten before a lucky player finally won? Today we’ll be looking at the 10 largest lottery jackpots in the world and learning a little bit about the extremely fortunate winners!

10. $564.1 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

On top of getting a very high cash prize, the Puerto Rican winner also made history as the first Powerball jackpot winner outside of the continental United States. Puerto Rico had joined the Powerball games less than one year prior to making headlines with this win. The Texas ticket was purchased at an Appletree Food Mart, and the North Carolina winner decided to lay low.

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Alongside the three Powerball jackpot winners, 33 other players matched all numbers except the Powerball number and won $1 million apiece.

9. $587.5 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

Cindy Hill was thrilled to call up her husband, Mark Hill, during his shift at a meat processing plant in Missouri to give him some amazing news: she had a winning Powerball ticket! She’d purchased the ticket at a local Trex Mart on the edge of town, unaware that it would change their lives forever and that they’d soon gain tons of attention following their winnings.

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The winning Arizona ticket was sold at a Four Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills.

8. $590.5 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

Gloria Mackenzie got truly lucky when she purchased her winning ticket from a local Publix, with someone telling her to go ahead of them in line. She wisely asked her financial and legal advisors to go with her to Tallahassee to get her ticket validated. She stated that she wanted to be sure that she and her son were ready to handle the immense responsibility that comes with such a large sum of money.

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Gloria Mackenzie definitely made a smart choice by seeking financial advice on how to handle her winnings, since most people who make it big wind up right back where they started.

7. $648 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

This impressive Mega Millions jackpot wound up being split down the middle between two winners, with Georgia winner Ira Curry basing her winning numbers on the lucky number 7 and a series of family birthdays. She purchased her ticket at a newsstand in Atlanta and said that she needed lots of time to decide how she and her family would spend her winnings.

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The California Mega Millions winner maintained a lower profile, with little being known about them other than that they purchased their winning ticket from Jennifer’s Gift Shop in San Jose.

6. $656 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

The Mega Millions lottery brought in a fair amount of revenue for stores as they watched people pour in with hopes of winning this unusually high jackpot. This win held first place as the largest Mega Millions lottery jackpot in history for a number of years until 2018.

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Many people who played this lottery but came up empty-handed vented their disappointment on social media once the winning numbers were announced.

5. $687.8 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

The two winners of this Powerball play were awarded with a hefty sum of $198.1 million each. However, Lerynne West of Iowa took home $140.6 million while New York winner Robert Bailey took $125.4 million as a result of differences between state tax withholding rates. This lottery jackpot was the third-largest Powerball in US history at the time of its winning.

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Two other tickets sold in Texas and Florida pulled in $2 million each as a result of having included the Power Play option for only a dollar more.

4. $758.7 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

Mavis Wanczyk used to work at a hospital in Massachusetts, but called in and announced that she wouldn’t be coming back when she realized she’d won. Despite thinking that her hopes of winning the lottery were nothing but a pipe dream, Wanczyk’s ticket turned out to be one of the largest individual wins in United States history!

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The machine that printed this winning ticket was retired shortly after Wanczyk’s victory, much to the dismay of others hoping to play on the lucky machine.

3. $768.4 million

  Source: wikimedia.org

Manuel Franco, who had been playing the lottery since he was 18, was thrilled when his efforts towards making it big finally paid off at age 24. Franco purchased around $10 in Powerball tickets after work one afternoon, noticing that he felt lucky. However, he didn’t hear the winning numbers called and only checked his tickets after hearing about a winner in Wisconsin the next day.

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Franco’s big win was described as an “amazing milestone moment for Wisconsin.”

2. $1.537 billion

  Source: wikimedia.org

The winner waited until the last moment to claim their prize, and remains unknown since South Carolina is one of only eight states that allow anonymous claims. Considering how much a prize like this can change interpersonal relationships, the winner was wise to take the rare opportunity to remain anonymous! The lucky player hit all six winning numbers, including the Megaball, in order to claim one of the largest lotto prizes in US history.

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The odds of winning this life-changing prize were one in 302.5 million!

1. $1.586 billion

  Source: wikimedia.org

The $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot of 2016 is the largest lottery jackpot in the world. Since this prize had three winning tickets sold, the prize was split evenly between the three winners, who walked away with $528.8 million each. The lucky couple in California purchased their winning ticket at a Chino Hills 7-Eleven and said that they intended to donate the majority of their winnings to charity.

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The other two winning tickets were purchased at a Naifeh’s Food Mart and a Publix.