The Luckiest Day of the Week for Lottery Jackpots

Friday is America’s luckiest lottery day, according to more than 20 years of Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot results.

Action Network compared more than 20 years of jackpot-winning draws with the total number of scheduled draws held on each day. Friday ranked first overall for Mega Millions, while just 0.09 percentage points separated Wednesday and Saturday for Powerball.

A Mega Millions jackpot was won in 9.81% of Friday draws analyzed, the highest rate in the study.

Key Findings

Luckiest Lottery Days

How often each day produced a jackpot winner

Friday ranks #1 overall. A Mega Millions jackpot was won in 9.81% of Friday draws analyzed, more often than any other day in the study.
Share of scheduled draws that produced a jackpot winner.

The Luckiest Lottery Days, Ranked

#1

Friday: Mega Millions

9.81% historical jackpot hit rate · 122 jackpot-winning draws

Friday ranks as America's luckiest lottery day in this historical analysis. A jackpot was won in about 1 in every 10.2 draws analyzed.

The average winning jackpot was $191M, while the biggest jackpot won on this draw day reached $1.35B.

Hit rate: 9.81% Winning draws: 122 Average jackpot: $191M
#2

Wednesday: Powerball

9.40% historical jackpot hit rate · 114 jackpot-winning draws

Wednesday ranks as the #2 ranked draw-day combination. A jackpot was won in about 1 in every 10.6 draws analyzed.

The average winning jackpot was $226M, while the biggest jackpot won on this draw day reached $1.82B.

Hit rate: 9.40% Winning draws: 114 Average jackpot: $226M
#3

Saturday: Powerball

9.31% historical jackpot hit rate · 113 jackpot-winning draws

Saturday ranks as the #3 ranked draw-day combination. A jackpot was won in about 1 in every 10.7 draws analyzed.

The average winning jackpot was $180M, while the biggest jackpot won on this draw day reached $1.79B.

Hit rate: 9.31% Winning draws: 113 Average jackpot: $180M
#4

Tuesday: Mega Millions

8.36% historical jackpot hit rate · 104 jackpot-winning draws

Tuesday ranks as the #4 ranked draw-day combination. A jackpot was won in about 1 in every 12.0 draws analyzed.

The average winning jackpot was $183M, while the biggest jackpot won on this draw day reached $1.60B.

Hit rate: 8.36% Winning draws: 104 Average jackpot: $183M
#5

Monday: Powerball

4.49% historical jackpot hit rate · 11 jackpot-winning draws

Monday ranks as the #5 ranked draw-day combination. A jackpot was won in about 1 in every 22.3 draws analyzed.

The average winning jackpot was $518M, while the biggest jackpot won on this draw day reached $2.04B.

Hit rate: 4.49% Winning draws: 11 Average jackpot: $518M

Friday Leads Mega Millions; Wednesday Edges Saturday for Powerball

Friday is the standout day for Mega Millions. A jackpot was won in 9.81% of Friday draws analyzed, compared with 8.36% of Tuesday draws.

Powerball is far tighter. Wednesday recorded a 9.40% jackpot rate, only 0.09 percentage points ahead of Saturday at 9.31%.

Monday Powerball Draws Have Delivered the Biggest Average Jackpots

Monday ranks last for how often Powerball jackpots have been won, but first for prize size. Winning Monday jackpots averaged about $518 million, the highest figure in the study. Monday drawings only began in 2021, so the result comes from a much smaller sample.

Day Lottery Hit rate Winning draws Average jackpot Biggest jackpot
Friday Mega Millions 9.81% 122 $191M $1.35B
Wednesday Powerball 9.40% 114 $226M $1.82B
Saturday Powerball 9.31% 113 $180M $1.79B
Tuesday Mega Millions 8.36% 104 $183M $1.60B
Monday Powerball 4.49% 11 $518M $2.04B

Friday leads for how often jackpots were won. Monday Powerball leads for the average size of the prize.

Which Days Have Produced the Most Billion-Dollar Jackpots?

The biggest prizes tell a different story from the overall ranking. Friday Mega Millions and Wednesday Powerball are tied with 4 billion-dollar jackpots each.

Day Lottery $1B+ jackpots $100M to $999M Under $100M
Friday Mega Millions 4 64 54
Tuesday Mega Millions 3 50 51
Wednesday Powerball 4 61 49
Saturday Powerball 2 58 53
Monday Powerball 1 9 1

The prize tiers show why raw jackpot counts can be misleading. A day can produce fewer wins overall but still be responsible for some of the largest payouts in lottery history.

Does the Day of the Week Actually Affect Your Odds?

No. The day of the week does not change the mathematical odds of an individual ticket.

The ranking shows which days produced jackpot winners most often historically. It does not suggest that any weekday improves the odds of the next draw.

What the Data Tells Us

““Friday is the standout result. Mega Millions jackpots were won more often on Fridays than on any other draw day we analyzed.

Powerball is far tighter. Wednesday only just beats Saturday, making those 2 days almost impossible to separate historically.

These results do not change the odds of the next draw. They show where the jackpots have landed in the past.”

Action Network Data Analyst

Methodology

What we measured. Action Network analyzed more than 20 years of Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot results. Each jackpot draw counted once, even when multiple tickets shared the prize.

How we ranked the days. We divided jackpot-winning draws by the total number of scheduled draws held on that day during the period analyzed.

Time period. The data covers Mega Millions results from May 17, 2002 to March 17, 2026 and Powerball results from February 1, 2003 to May 2, 2026. Monday Powerball draws were counted from August 23, 2021, when Monday drawings began.

Prize values. We used the advertised jackpot amount to compare average and record prizes.

Sources