By: Najla Alexander
NJ Lottery officials said that the Mega Millions’ top prize now stands at $980 million heading into tonight’s drawing, the eighth-highest jackpot in game history.
The cash value of the prize is $452.2 million. New Jersey has its place among the game’s record high jackpots, lottery officials say.
According to NJ Lottery officials, in 2024, a Monmouth County player won a $1.128 billion jackpot, now the sixth highest in game history.
The game’s top jackpots:
-$1.602 billion: Aug. 8, 2023, Florida
-$1.537 billion: Oct. 23, 2018, South Carolina
-$1.348 billion: Jan. 13, 2023, Maine
-$1.337 billion: July 29, 2022, Illinois
-$1.269 billion: Dec. 27, 2024, California
-$1.128 billion: March 26, 2024, Monmouth County, New Jersey
-$1.050 billion: Jan. 22, 2021, Michigan
-$980 million: Current run
-$810 million: Sept. 10, 2024, Texas
-$656 million: March 30, 2012, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
Players don’t have to win the Mega Millions jackpot to win big, lottery officials stated. After the game rules changed in April to allow a free random multiplier, an Ocean County player in October won $3 million after getting a 3X multiplier on their $1 million base prize.
In June, a Bergen player saw $1 million jump to $4 million, NJ Lottery officials said.
The Mega Millions prize is just one of several notable jackpots New Jersey players are trying to capture:
-Powerball: The jackpot now stands at $546 million for Saturday’s drawing.
-Pick-6: Heading into Saturday’s drawing, the jackpot is $2.8 million.
-Jersey Cash 5: The daily game’s jackpot is $474,000. Over the weekend, two separate jackpots were hit, one for $664,971 in Union County and another for $160,000 in Ocean County.
-Cash4Life: The daily draw game offers “for life” prizes of $1,000 day for life and $1,000 week for life, with cash value options of $7 million and $1 million respectively.
In 2025, according to NJ Lottery officials, one New Jersey player won the $7 million prize, and five have each won $1 million.