One Mega Millions ticket sold in Northern California has won Friday’s estimated $1.22 billion jackpot – believed to be the fifth-largest prize in the history of the game, the lottery says.
The ticket – the first to win the jackpot in over 100 days – matched all six winning numbers: 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and Mega Ball 6.
Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot amounts to $549.7 million in cash. The prize surged since its last drawing on Christmas Eve, when no winner took home the estimated $1 billion jackpot. Friday’s grand prize was previously estimated at $1.15 billion but grew ahead of the highly-anticipated drawing.
The winning ticket was sold at Sunshine Food & Gas in Cottonwood, Shasta County, according to the California State Lottery.
It’s only the fourth Mega Millions jackpot won in 2024 and just the seventh time in the game’s history that the jackpot has soared past $1 billion.
The six others were awarded in South Carolina in 2018, Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine and Florida in 2023 and New Jersey in March. The Florida prize is the game’s record jackpot at $1.602 billion.