What happens when two people win the same jackpot?
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On September 6, 2025, two tickets matched all six Powerball numbers on the $1.787 billion jackpot. Here is exactly what happens when a jackpot is shared, and how often it occurs.
The jackpot splits but the other prizes aren't
A shared jackpot is divided equally per winning ticket. Two tickets on $1.787 billion means each holds an $893.7 million share of the advertised annuity, and each winner then makes their own choice between the annuity and the cash option for their share. One can take the cash option while the other can take thirty years of payments.
Every prize below the jackpot works differently. The $1 million for five white balls, the $50,000 for four plus the Powerball, and everything under them are fixed prizes paid in full to every ticket that qualifies. Our count across 1,398 drawings found 1,976 tickets that hit the $1 million five white balls, and every one of them received the full amount regardless of how many others matched the same night.
How often jackpot splits happen
| Game, current format | Jackpot runs won | Won by one ticket | Split by two or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powerball (since Oct 2015) | 76 | 70 | 6 |
| Mega Millions (since Oct 2017) | 52 | 50 | 2 |
About one Powerball jackpot in thirteen ends up being shared, and Mega Millions splits are even rarer. The biggest jackpots carry most of the risk: splits happen when tens of millions of extra tickets pour in during a big jackpot run and extra news coverage.
The $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot of November 2022 sold more tickets than any drawing in history and was won by a single ticket in California, while the $1.586 billion prize of January 2016 was famously shared three ways. Volume raises the odds of sharing a jackpot prize.
Your numbers could change your split risk
The drawing does not care what numbers you picked, but the other players do. Splits happen when multiple people hold the same combination, and people do not pick combinations evenly: birthdays concentrate picks on numbers 1 through 31, and our analysis of winning draws found jackpots landing on low-number-heavy combinations were shared more often than jackpots on higher numbers.
Quick picks spread you across the full number space, which is one of the few genuine arguments in their favor, and we compared the approaches in quick picks versus your own numbers.
The tax mechanics of a shared win
Each winner is taxed on their own share, exactly as if they had won a smaller jackpot alone: their own withholding, their own bracket, their own state. Two winners in different states can receive very different amounts from identical split jackpots, since state tax runs from 0% to 10.9%. Our lottery tax calculator handles any share in any state.
Each ticket is claimed separately, on its own state's deadline, by whoever holds it, and neither winner has any obligation to the other or any say in the other's choices. We covered what a solo billion-dollar winner actually banks in how much you get after cash option and taxes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if two people win the Powerball jackpot?
The advertised jackpot is divided equally among the winning tickets, so two winners of a $1 billion jackpot hold $500 million each, and each independently chooses cash or annuity for their share. Our draw records show 6 of the 76 completed Powerball jackpot runs since October 2015 ended with multiple winners, including the $1.787 billion jackpot of September 6, 2025, shared by two tickets.
Do the smaller Powerball prizes get split too?
No. Every prize below the jackpot is a fixed amount: matching five white balls pays $1,000,000 to every ticket that does it, whether one ticket manages it or ten. In an average drawing about 1.4 tickets nationwide hit that tier and each collects the full million.
How likely is a jackpot to be split?
Under the current Powerball format, 6 of 76 jackpot runs ended in a split, about 8%. The risk is concentrated in the biggest jackpots, because splits happen when ticket sales surge, and popular number patterns like birthdays raise the odds of sharing further.
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.
