Fortunate Illinois lottery player takes down $536m Mega Millions jackpot

• One Mega Millions ticket purchased in Illinois hit the game's jackpot for a whopping $536m win
• The jackpot survived for more than three months since the last time it was won
• The game's top prize was reset to $50m and the next drawing is scheduled for Friday the 13th

An incredibly fortunate lottery player in Illinois took down the first Mega Millions jackpot for 2026.

The lucky player matched all winning numbers from the game's Tuesday drawing to win the mind-blowing $536m jackpot.

First Mega Millions jackpot in 2026 goes down

Mega Millions winning numbers on Tuesday night were white balls 16, 21, 30, 35 and 65 along with the gold Mega Ball number 7.

Surprisingly, a single ticket sold in Illinois matched all winning numbers to win the game's top prize after the jackpot remained intact for more than three months.

The latest Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated $536m or $245.6m in cash, however, there might be a slight difference in the value depending on the actual sales.

Since the launch of Mega Millions, Illinois has won or shared 17 jackpot wins.

The win represents the second time in the history of the game that a first jackpot for the year wasn't won until March.

Before the most recent win in Illinois, the last time a fortunate player hit the Mega Millions jackpot was on December 2, 2025, in New Jersey.

To grow to $536m, the jackpot survived 28 drawings and, in that time, close to 7.7m winning tickets were sold.

During the recent jackpot run, there were 18 tier-two prizes between $2m and $5m, won by players from 13 different states, including New York, Minnesota, Maryland and Texas, among others.

Excluding the jackpot, during the latest run, players have won nearly $209.4m in prizes.

The most recent drawing alone produced close to 416,000 winning tickets within all prize tiers.

Besides the jackpot win, two tickets matched all five white balls for a tier-two prize.

One of the tickets, purchased in Maryland, won $4m, while the other one, in Illinois, won $5m.

Mega Millions jackpot resets, next drawing is set for Friday

After an incredibly fortunate player has taken down the Mega Millions jackpot, the game's top prize was reset to $50m, or $22.9m in cash.

The game's next drawing is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 13, 2026.

Since the launch of Mega Millions in 2002, seven jackpots have been won on Friday the 13th.

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