How often do Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots have more than one winner?
When a Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot is finally hit, there is roughly a 10% chance there are multiple winners. Of 610 jackpots won in our database records, going back to 1992 for Powerball and 2002 for Mega Millions, 63 were shared by two or more tickets.
| Game | Jackpots won | Split between 2+ tickets | Share split | Three or more winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powerball (since 1992) | 379 | 40 | 10.6% | 7 |
| Mega Millions (since 2002) | 231 | 23 | 10.0% | 5 |
| Both games | 610 | 63 | 10.3% | 12 |
The Powerball record for most jackpot winners in one drawing is four winners. On August 25, 2001, tickets in Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire split a $295 million jackpot. The largest jackpot ever shared was Powerball's $1.787 billion on September 6, 2025, split by tickets in Missouri and Texas. The $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot of January 13, 2016, went three ways, to California, Florida, and Tennessee.
Big jackpots have split winners more often
A jackpot under $300 million was shared about 8.8% of the time, and one of $300 million or more was shared 19.8% of the time, a little more than double.
| Jackpot size when won | Jackpots won | Split | Share split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100 million | 348 | 31 | 8.9% |
| $100 million to $300 million | 176 | 15 | 8.5% |
| $300 million to $600 million | 58 | 11 | 19.0% |
| $600 million or more | 28 | 6 | 21.4% |
The reason is pretty obvious, ticket sales. When the jackpot is huge and sales balloon, the chance that some other ticket carries the same six numbers grows with them. When a jackpot is split, each winning ticket gets an equal share, and each winner chooses the cash option or the annuity separately.
Rarer under the current number formats
Both games made their jackpots harder to hit in the 2010s, Powerball in October 2015 and Mega Millions in October 2017, and splits have become less common since. Powerball has had 6 split jackpots out of 76 won under its current format, or 7.9%. Mega Millions has had 2 out of 52, or 3.8%, the last of them a $395 million jackpot shared on December 8, 2023. Nearly three years have passed without another.
Powerball, meanwhile, just produced two in a row. On April 29, 2026, tickets in Indiana and Kansas split a $143.4 million jackpot. In the very next drawing, on May 2, the reset $20 million jackpot went to two tickets, one in Florida and one in Texas. The only other time Powerball had split jackpots in consecutive drawings was April 1996, when winners in Washington, D.C., and Rhode Island were followed by winners in Indiana and Nebraska.
The other Powerball splits under the current format were $632.6 million on January 5, 2022, shared by California and Wisconsin, and $687.8 million on October 27, 2018, shared by Iowa and New York, along with the two record jackpots above. How often the jackpot is won at all is covered in our Powerball jackpot breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often is a Powerball jackpot split between winners?
About 1 time in 10. Of 379 Powerball jackpots won since 1992, 40 had two or more winning tickets. The most in one drawing was four, on August 25, 2001, when tickets in Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire shared $295 million.
When was the last time Mega Millions had more than one jackpot winner?
On December 8, 2023, when two tickets shared a $395 million jackpot. Before that it happened on October 14, 2022. Mega Millions has had only two split jackpots since its current number format began in October 2017.
How is a lottery jackpot divided when there are multiple winners?
Equally among the winning tickets. Two winners each get half of the advertised annuity, or half of the cash value if they take the lump sum, and each winner makes that choice separately. Smaller prizes are not affected.
Jessie Jurado is a news writer who covers new scratch-off launches, state lottery guides, taxes on winnings, news, and much more. She joined ScratchCheck in 2026 and writes the site's state-by-state coverage.
