PowerBall vs Mega Millions
All you need to know about these American lotteries, the games that can rollover and accumulate the biggest jackpots. What they look like and the main differences between them.
Comparison between the two most important American lotteries.
Both games have a very similar mechanics and characteristics after the change that MegaMillions suffered at the end of 2017. Below you can see a summary table:
| PowerBall | MegaMillions |
| 5 main numbers out of 69 | 5 main numbers out of 70 |
| 1 extra number between 26, the PowerBall | 1 extra number between 25, the MegaBall |
| 9 main prize categories | 9 main prize categories |
| $ 40 Million minimum pot | $ 40 Million minimum pot |
| PowerPlay, prize multiplier | MegaPlier, prize multiplier |
At first sight you can see that differences between both games are minimal. Of the 9 prize categories, with the exception of the main category (5 + 1), in the remaining 8 categories the odds of winning are almost identical.
The important difference is found in hitting the jackpot: in the MegaMillions the odds of matching all numbers are 1 out of 302 million, while in the PowerBall those odds are reduced to 1 against 292 million.
Which offers the biggest jackpots, PowerBall or MegaMillions?
Both lotteries seem to be in continuous struggle to get the highest prize and be at the top of the ranking of the most generous lotteries.
Starting from a minimum pre-established jackpot of 40 million dollars in both cases, it seems that MegaMillions can get to surpass the to date record of 1,500 million dollars held by the PowerBall since January 2016.
The previous record was in possession of the MegaMillions for almost 4 years.
If we talk about jackpots with a single winner, PowerBall holds the highest prize to an individual since in May 2013, with an amount of 590.5 million dollars.
On the other hand, if you look at the probability of winning any prize, Mega Millions has some advantage, since it has 1 out of 15 chances of winning any prize.