Everyone knows the odds of winning a jackpot. Far fewer people know how often jackpots actually fall — how long the droughts run, how big the prize usually is when someone finally hits it, and how often it gets split. We went through every draw in our archive to find out.
This analysis covers 1,371 Powerball draws with complete prize data (October 2015 to June 2026) and 1,104 Lotto America draws, using the per-tier winner counts the lotteries publish after each drawing.
The headline numbers
| Measure | Powerball | Lotto America |
|---|---|---|
| Draws analysed | 1,371 | 1,104 |
| Times the jackpot was won | 75 | 15 |
| Average draws between wins | 17.0 | 63.5 |
| Longest drought | 46 draws (~15 weeks) | 215 draws |
| Median jackpot when won | $247 million | $8.04 million |
| Wins split by 2+ tickets | 8.0% | 0% |
Powerball falls about once every 17 draws
Seventy-five jackpot wins across 1,371 draws works out to roughly one win every 17 drawings. With three draws a week, that is a jackpot falling about every six weeks on average — far more often than the 1-in-292-million headline odds might make it feel, simply because tens of millions of tickets are in play each draw.
But "on average" hides a lot. The longest stretch in our data ran 46 consecutive draws without a winner — roughly three and a half months of rollovers. Those long droughts are precisely what manufacture record jackpots: no winner, prize climbs, more players pile in, and the cycle feeds itself until someone finally hits.
Most jackpots are won well before they get huge
This is the finding that most surprises people. The median Powerball jackpot at the moment it was won was $247 million — and 29 of the 75 wins came at jackpots under $200 million. The billion-dollar draws that dominate the news are genuine outliers, not the norm. The three biggest in our data were $2.04 billion (November 2022), $1.82 billion (December 2025) and $1.79 billion (September 2025); at the other end, one jackpot fell at just $20 million.
In other words, the typical winning ticket is bought during an ordinary, unremarkable roll — not during the national frenzy.
Splits are rarer than expected — but concentrated at the top
Only 6 of 75 Powerball jackpot wins (8%) were shared between multiple tickets. That is lower than most players assume. The catch is when it happens: splits cluster on the enormous, heavily played jackpots, because that is when ticket volume explodes. On a quiet $80 million draw, a win almost certainly goes to one ticket; on a $1.5 billion draw, sharing becomes a live risk. Our split-risk tracker estimates that probability for each upcoming draw from the number of tickets actually in play.
Lotto America shows the other extreme: zero of its 15 jackpot wins were split. Its prizes are small enough that it never attracts the ticket volume needed to make sharing likely — one of the quiet advantages of a smaller game.
Lotto America: rarer wins, but a far cheaper chase
Lotto America's jackpot fell just 15 times in 1,104 draws — about once every 64 draws, with one drought stretching 215 draws. Its median winning jackpot was $8.04 million. Those look like worse numbers until you remember the ticket costs $1 and the jackpot odds are eleven times better; the game simply sells far fewer tickets, so its (much easier) jackpot still goes unclaimed for long stretches.
What this does and doesn't tell you
These are descriptive statistics about the past, not predictions. A drought running long does not make a win "due" — every draw is independent, and the odds on the next drawing are identical to the odds on the last one, whether the jackpot has rolled twice or thirty times. What the data does usefully show is the shape of the game: jackpots fall more often than the headline odds suggest, usually at sizes that never make national news, and sharing is rare except at the very top.
You can explore the underlying figures yourself on the jackpot growth stats page, see live win-and-split probabilities on the split-risk tracker, or read how we derive all of it on our methodology page. For why a "due" number is a myth, see do hot numbers win more often?
Analysis of NumbersIntel's own draw archive; figures cover the stated data windows and will shift as new draws land. For information and entertainment only — not financial or gambling advice. The lottery is a negative-expected-value game; play for fun, never as an investment. You must be 18+ (21+ in some states). If gambling is a problem for you or someone you know, call 1-800-GAMBLER.