A Powerball ticket purchased in Arkansas secured a $1.817 billion jackpot in the drawing held on Christmas Eve. This win concluded a sequence of 46 consecutive drawings without a grand prize winner and ranks as the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history. The winning ticket holder has the option to receive a lump sum cash payment valued at $834.9 million.
Winning Details
The winning numbers for the Christmas Eve drawing were 04, 25, 31, 52, and 59, with the Powerball number being 19. The jackpot amount of $1.817 billion was confirmed after increased ticket sales, making it the second-largest in U.S. history and reported as the largest Powerball prize of 2025. The lump sum cash option for the prize was $834.9 million. Winners typically have the choice between an annuity, consisting of an initial payment followed by 29 annual payments increasing by 5% each year, or the lump sum cash value. Historically, most winners select the lump sum.
Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group Chair and Iowa Lottery CEO, noted that ticket purchases contribute to supporting public programs and services nationwide.
Historical Context
This jackpot represents the second time a Powerball prize has been won by a ticket purchased in Arkansas, the first instance occurring in 2010. The last Powerball grand prize prior to this event was claimed on September 6, when players in Missouri and Texas shared a $1.787 billion prize.
Overall, the U.S. has recorded over a dozen lottery jackpots exceeding $1 billion since 2016, with the largest U.S. jackpot to date being $2.04 billion in 2022. Historically, a Powerball jackpot was previously won on Christmas Eve in 2011. Additionally, the jackpot has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.
Powerball Game Mechanics
Powerball is available in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are priced at $2 each. States where tickets cannot be purchased include Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.
Key aspects of the game include:
- Odds: The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. These odds were adjusted in 2015 from a previous 1 in 175 million to facilitate larger jackpot rollovers and increase the frequency of smaller prize wins.
- Prize Tiers: While the grand prize odds are substantial, the game offers various smaller prize tiers with more favorable odds. Prizes range from several dollars up to $2 million. In the drawing immediately preceding the Christmas Eve win, participants in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin each won $1 million.
- Eligibility: Most jurisdictions require players to be 18 or older to purchase tickets, with Nebraska requiring 19 years and Louisiana and Arizona requiring 21 years.
- Claiming Prizes: Winning tickets must be claimed in the state where they were purchased.
Tim Chartier, a math professor at Davidson College, provided an illustration of the jackpot odds, comparing the likelihood of a winning ticket to selecting one marked dollar bill from a stack 19 miles (31 kilometers) high. He further noted that purchasing 100 tickets results in a minor increase in overall probability.