WASHINGTON — The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday's drawing is a massive $1.73 billion — the second-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. And all that cash on the line has players wondering if there's a way to improve their odds.
The quick answer is no. All number combinations have the same minuscule odds of winning. So really there's no way to significantly improve your odds by buying more tickets. You'd actually lose money if you tried to buy every possible combination to "guarantee" a win.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are one in 292.2 million. The odds of winning smaller prizes, ranging from $1 million to $2, are significantly better.
Over the past few years, huge lottery jackpots have become more common as lottery officials have changed the rules and ticket prices to boost top prizes.
Are some lottery numbers luckier?
Players often wonder if there's a strategy to it. Some numbers have been drawn a bit more often than others, but your chances remain the same for any combination.
Statistics professor Rong Chen said in a Q&A article from Rutgers University that any combination has the same odds. Being selected in the past doesn't mean a combination is more or less likely to win: "Those numbers have the same chance of winning as any other number today."
Chen said combinations that other players are less likely to pick, like strong patterns or numbers that are too high to be a birthdate, might reduce your chances of having to share the jackpot. That doesn't make you any more likely to actually win, though.
What are the 'luckiest' Powerball numbers?
Even though the odds for every number are the same, we wanted to take a look at the "luckiest" numbers in Powerball's last several years.
Here are the 10 most common numbers to be drawn on the five white balls over the past nearly eight years, according to LottoNumbers.com.
- 61: Drawn 90 times
- 32: Drawn 89 times
- 63: Drawn 87 times
- 21: Drawn 86 times
- 36: Drawn 84 times
- 23: Drawn 82 times
- 69: Drawn 81 times
- 37: Drawn 79 times
- 62: Drawn 78 times
- 39: Drawn 78 times
Most common Powerball numbers
Here are the 11 most common numbers for the red Powerball in the last eight years.
- 18: Drawn 49 times
- 24: Drawn 48 times
- 4: Drawn 47 times
- 14: Drawn 42 times
- 26: Drawn 40 times
- 5: Drawn 39 times
- 25: Drawn 39 times
- 3: Drawn 39 times
- 21 Drawn 38 times
- 13: Drawn 38 times
- 11: Drawn 38 times
Least common numbers for Powerball
The main number that has been drawn the least number of times during the last eight years is 13. The number has only been drawn 50 times out of 947 total drawings, as of Oct. 7, 2023. The next least commonly drawn number is 34, which has only popped up 53 times in that span (but was last drawn on Oct. 9, 2023).
As for the red Powerball, one number holds the least-drawn spot: 15, drawn just 27 times in the past eight years. It has been a dry period for number 15 as it hasn't been drawn since February 2023.
We make a great pair!
Since two is better than one, we'll look at Powerball's most common pairs for main numbers in the last eight years.
- 37 and 44: Drawn 13 times
- 32 and 21: Drawn 12 times
- 32 and 58: Drawn 12 times
- 61 and 69: Drawn 11 times
- 28 and 63: Drawn 11 times
- 37 and 39: Drawn 11 times
- 23 and 32: Drawn 11 times
- 8 and 27: Drawn 11 times
- 7 and 15: Drawn 11 times
What are the largest Powerball jackpots?
- $2.04 Billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
- $1.73 Billion (est.) – Oct. 11, 2023
- $1.586 Billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
- $1.08 Billion – July 19, 2023 – CA
- $768.4 Million – March 27, 2019 – WI
- $758.7 Million – Aug. 23, 2017 – MA
- $754.6 Million – Feb. 6, 2023 - WA
- $731.1 Million – Jan. 20, 2021 – MD
- $699.8 Million – Oct. 4, 2021 – CA
- $687.8 Million – Oct. 27, 2018 – IA, NY
Largest lottery jackpots in US history
- $2.04 billion: Powerball - Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
- $1.73 Billion (est.) – Oct. 11, 2023
- $1.586 billion: Powerball – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
- $1.58 billion: Mega Millions – Aug. 8, 2023 – FL
- $1.537 billion: Mega Millions – Oct. 23, 2018 - SC
- $1.35 billion: Mega Millions - Jan. 13, 2023 - ME
- $1.337 billion: Mega Millions - July 29, 2022 - IL
- $1.08 billion: Powerball – July 19, 2023 – CA
- $1.05 billion: Mega Millions - Jan. 22, 2021 - MI
- $768.4 million – March 27, 2019 – WI