A Jackpot Convergence: Mega Millions, Powerball Both at $189 Million

BALTIMORE, Md. (May 28, 2025) – Mega Millions and Powerball players know that long odds are always part of the game. But long odds can also make for intriguing situations like today (May 28) when the estimated annuity value for the jackpots in both games are the same at $189 million.

The situation will exist just for today: There was no jackpot winner in the May 27 Mega Millions drawing, and the jackpot for the next drawing on May 30 rolled to $189 million. Meanwhile, the Powerball jackpot for tonight’s drawing sits at that same $189 million, and will increase to an estimated annuity of $207 million for the next drawing on May 31 if there is no jackpot winner tonight.

The odds of both games having the same annuity jackpot at the same time are all but impossible to calculate. That’s because the jackpots increase after each drawing where there is no winner. The amount of the increase is based on a number of factors, most notably sales of the tickets.

The advertised annuity and cash jackpot amounts are always estimated because the exact figures can’t be determined until after sales are closed prior to each drawing. In Powerball, Maryland Lottery players can buy tickets until 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays in order to be part of the drawings on those nights. In Mega Millions, the sales cutoff time on Tuesday and Friday nights is 10:45 p.m.

Tickets for both games are sold in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball tickets are also available in Puerto Rico. Millions of people across the nation buy tickets, and the annuity values also depend, in part, on interest rates and the ever-changing yields of U.S. Treasury Bonds. If a jackpot winner chooses the annuity option, the lottery uses the cash value to purchase bonds that fund the annual payments to the winner.

With all that in mind, suffice it to say that calculating the likelihood of a jackpot convergence would be a statistician’s nightmare, but it’s safe to say that it’s more rare than a jackpot win. In 2025 alone, the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots have been won three times each.

From a practical standpoint, a jackpot convergence is nothing more than a curiosity. The odds of winning the jackpot in either game do not change (1 in 292,201,338 for Powerball, and 1 in 290,472,336 for Mega Millions), nor does the possibility of one person winning both games (1 in 290,472,336 X 292,201,338, presuming the purchase of a single ticket for each game).