Publix, Kroger sold winning Powerball, Mega Millions over $1 billion: Biggest jackpots
‘It could happen to you.’ Mega Millions and Powerball reached $1 billion 14 times in history. Who won the jackpots and where did the tickets come from?
Neptune ShopRite shoppers react to $1.1B Mega Millions jackpot winner
The jackpot is the fifth highest in the game’s nearly three-decade history, agency representatives said in a release.
- In 2025, Powerball and Mega Millions crossed the billion-dollar mark three times, with one jackpot as high as $983 million.
- Edwin Castro of Altadena, California, remains the largest lottery jackpot winner ever with $2.04 billion Powerball win.
- 2 Publix stores in Florida sold Powerball and Mega Millions tickets worth $1.58 billion.
- Kroger grocery store in Michigan sold a Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $1.05 billion.
Mega Millions and Powerball have reached $1 billion 14 times in history: Who won the big jackpots and where did the tickets come from?
In 2025, Powerball and Mega Millions crossed the billion-dollar mark three times, with one jackpot as high as $983 million. This year continued a recent surge in massive jackpots: 2023 saw four billion-dollar lottery jackpots, and there were three billion-dollar totals in 2024.
The last billion-dollar lottery jackpot occurred during the 2025 holiday season, similar to what happened during the 2024 holiday season:
- In 2024, after three months of Mega Millions rollovers − from Sept. 13, 2024, a Friday the 13th, to Dec. 24, 2024, or Christmas Eve − the grand prize grew from $20 million to a whopping $970 million. A Christmas Eve rollover led to the $1.22 billion Mega Millions drawing for Dec. 27, 2024. Rosemary Casarotti, who lives in a small town in California, collected the grand prize, according to California Lottery officials.
- In 2025, after three months of Powerball rollovers − from Monday, Sept. 8, 2025 to Dec. 24, 2025, or Christmas Eve − the grand prize grew to $1.817 billion. The winning Powerball ticket was purchased from a Murphy USA gas station at the Walmart Supercenter in Cabot, Arkansas. The Christmas Eve jackpot was for $1.7 billion, but final ticket sales pushed it to the second-highest lottery prize in U.S. history, at $1.817 billion.
Who won the largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history? Below is a compilation of all 14 billion-dollar Powerball and Mega Millions lottery jackpots, who won, who sold the tickets and their one-time lump-sum prizes.
The list is organized from lowest total to highest.
When was the first time a lottery jackpot hit $1 billion?
Powerball made history Jan. 11, 2016, the first time a lottery jackpot hit $1 billion. After no one matched all five numbers plus the Powerball in the (Saturday) Jan. 9, 2016, drawing for $949 million, the Monday jackpot soared to $1.4 billion. (No one won that drawing either.) Powerball made history again when three tickets matched all six numbers to win $1.586 billion in the (Wednesday) Jan. 13, 2016, drawing.
The jackpot started Nov. 4, 2015, at $40 million. It had rolled over almost 30 times from Nov. 4, 2015, to Jan. 13, 2016, before three tickets from California, Tennessee and Florida claimed the grand prize. The winning Florida ticket was purchased from a Publix store in Melbourne Beach.
14th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.05 billion Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 22, 2021?
A single ticket won a $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot on Jan. 22, 2021, in Michigan. An Oakland County lottery club, the Wolverine FLL Club, made up of four members, came forward to claim the prize. The winning ticket was purchased from a Kroger grocery store in Novi, Michigan.
Fun fact: Jan. 22, 2021, is a palindromic number, when written in this style, 1/22/21, meaning the number is the same when the digits are reversed.
13th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.08 billion Powerball drawing on July 19, 2023?
A single ticket was purchased in California for the July 19, 2023, Powerball drawing for $1.08 billion. The winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market in Los Angeles, which received a $1 million bonus commission, according to California Lottery officials. Owner Nabor Herrera was not aware that he’d sold the winning ticket until he saw media gathered in front of his store the morning after the drawing. Yanira Alvarez of California claimed the prize.
12th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.128 billion Mega Millions drawing on March 26, 2024?
A single ticket from Neptune, New Jersey, claimed the grand prize in the March 26, 2024, Mega Millions drawing for $1.128 billion. The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, finally came forward a day before the 2024 Christmas Eve holiday. The winning ticket was purchased at the Neptune Township ShopRite, the New Jersey Lottery reported.
According to a Dec. 23, 2024, story in the Asbury Park Press, a USA TODAY Network newspaper, ShopRite in Neptune received a $30,000 lottery bonus commission. Richard Saker, CEO and president of Saker ShopRites, told the app.com in a prepared statement: “ShopRite congratulates the lucky $1.13 billion Mega Millions winner and wishes them all the best on this incredible life-changing event. To pay the good will forward, Saker ShopRites and the ShopRite of Neptune donated the store’s $30,000 lottery bonus commission to Fulfill Food Bank in Neptune.”
11th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.269 billion Mega Millions drawing on Dec. 27, 2024?
A single ticket in California purchased just after Christmas and Hanukkah and ahead of New Year’s Eve correctly matched all five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win the $1.22 billion Mega Millions drawing for Dec. 27, 2024. Months later, the winner was revealed on the luckiest holiday of all: St. Patrick’s Day 2025.
Rosemary Casarotti of California officially collected her prize, which had ballooned to $1.269 billion after final ticket sales. Casarotti opted for the lump sum, valued at more than $571 million less federal taxes. The ticket was sold at a Circle K in Cottonwood, California. The convenience store in Shasta County received a $1,000,000 bonus.
10th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.326 billion Powerball drawing on April 6, 2024?
One ticket, three winners: A single ticket was purchased in Oregon for $1.326 billion Powerball prize on April 6, 2024. Cheng “Charlie” Saephan and his wife, Duanpen Saephan, of Portland, Oregon, and their friend Laiza Chao of Milwaukee, Oregon, claimed their winnings. Charlie Saephan bought the winning Powerball ticket from a Plaid Pantry in Portland, Oregon.
The couple split the over $422 million after-tax-withholdings lump sum with Chao evenly, according to Oregon Lottery officials.
Cheng Saephan, an immigrant born in Laos who moved to the U.S. in 1994, said in a news conference that he had been battling cancer since 2016. Not long after the $1.326 billion Powerball drawing, Cheng Saephan told reporters he underwent chemotherapy treatment. Saephan worked as a machinist in the aerospace industry before his cancer diagnosis.
9th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.337 billion Mega Millions drawing on July 29, 2022?
A single ticket was purchased in Des Plaines, Illinois, for the July 29, 2022, Mega Millions drawing. Two people who wished to remain anonymous claimed the $1.337 billion jackpot. The winning Mega Millions ticket was purchased at a Speedway in Des Plaines, Illinois.
8th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.35 billion Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 13, 2023?
A single ticket was purchased in Maine for the Jan. 13, 2023, Mega Millions drawing. The winner remains anonymous through a trust and accepted their winnings of $1.35 billion through the limited liability company LaKoma Island Investments LLC, according to a Feb. 22, 2023, story in USA TODAY.
Fun fact: Jan. 13, 2023, was Friday the 13th. The number 13 typically is referred to as an unlucky number, and it’s associated with horror films — and Taylor Swift.
7th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.537 billion Mega Millions drawing on Oct. 23, 2018?
A single ticket was purchased in South Carolina for the Oct. 23, 2018, Mega Millions drawing. The $1.537 billion winner was never revealed since winners in South Carolina can remain anonymous. A KC Mart in Simpsonville, South Carolina, sold the winning ticket.
6th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.58 billion Mega Millions drawing on Aug. 8, 2023?
A single ticket was purchased at a Publix in Neptune Beach, Florida, for the Aug. 8, 2023, drawing. The $1.58 billion winner claimed the prize Sept. 25, 2023, and the Florida Lottery announced the winner — Saltines Holdings LLC of Miami — on Dec. 27, 2023.
Fun fact: Of the 11 times a Mega Millions or Powerball lottery jackpot reached $1 billion, two of them came from a Florida beachside Publix store with the grand prize at $1.586 billion and $1.58 billion.
5th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.586 billion Powerball drawing on Jan. 13, 2016?
Three tickets purchased in California, Florida and Tennessee won the Jan. 13, 2016, Powerball drawing, splitting $1.586 billion.
In 2016, FLORIDA TODAY reported Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt bought their winning Powerball ticket at a Publix in Melbourne Beach. The couple waited until February 2016 to claim their share of the grand prize.
Six months after the drawing, Marvin and Mae Acosta of California claimed their Powerball winnings of $528.8 million, according to the California Lottery.
The Tennessee Lottery announced a family from Munford, Tennessee, was the third winner in the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot. John and Lisa Robinson claimed their share of the jackpot after making an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show with Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly to declare themselves the winner.
4th biggest jackpot: Who won $1.73 billion Powerball jackpot?
For the $1.73 billion Powerball prize for Oct. 11, 2023, Theodorus Struyck of California came forward to claim the ticket.
The California Lottery said he represented a group of winners. In California, big jackpot winners must claim the ticket in person at lottery headquarters, but they have the option to issue prepared statements and decline to appear in photo and videos. Midway Market in California sold the winning billion-dollar Powerball ticket.
3rd biggest jackpot: Who won $1.787 billion Powerball drawing on Sept. 6, 2025?
Two winners in the Sept. 6, 2025, Powerball drawing for $1.787 billion — an anonymous player in St. Louis, Missouri, and Seven Bridges Revocable Trust in Fredericksburg, Texas — took the cash.
A QuikTrip gas station and convenience store in St. Louis, Missouri, and a Big’s 103 gas station and convenience store in Fredericksburg, Texas, sold the winning Powerball tickets. Since there were two winners, the $1.787 billion prize was split at $893.5 million or a one-time lump sum of $410.3 million, both amounts before taxes.
2nd biggest jackpot: Who won $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot on 2025 Christmas Eve holiday?
In the early hours of the 2025 Christmas holiday, Powerball officials and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery reported one ticket purchased in the Natural State was worth $1.817 billion. The Christmas Eve Powerball drawing, originally for $1.7 billion, ballooned by more than $100 million after final ticket sales.
The winning ticket came from a Murphy USA gas station in a Walmart plaza in Cabot, Arkansas.
As of Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, days before New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, it was not known who won the $1.817 billion Powerball grand prize.
The largest lottery prize ever climbed to $2.04 billion in November 2022. The jackpot was an estimated $1.9 billion days before the drawing. A single ticket purchased in California won the grand prize, and (fun fact) the winner was revealed on Valentine’s Day − Feb. 14, 2023.
Edwin Castro won the largest-ever lottery jackpot, and he opted for a lump sum of $997.6 million, just shy of $1 billion, according to the California Lottery. The winning ticket was purchased at Joe’s Service Center nearby in Altadena, California.
Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper.
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