Des Moines, IA – The Powerball jackpot of $550 million has been won, with lottery officials confirming two winning tickets will share the record-breaking prize from Wednesday night’s draw.
Officials have revealed that the two winning tickets were sold in Arizona and Missouri respectively, while a further 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes.
The winning numbers of 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and a Powerball of 6 will see two winners split the Powerball jackpot, which had climbed to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing. That means the total cash option stands at $379.8 million — more than the annual GDP of Tonga .
Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot has now become the second-largest lottery payout in US history, following 16 consecutive drawings that produced no top winner. With hype building around such a momentous Powerball jackpot, tickets across the nation were selling at an average of 130,000 a minute in the hours leading up to the drawing.
According to Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, players were buying 7.8 million tickets an hour as the drawing grew closer; that equates to $15.6 million an hour. The amount of tickets sold was six times the number sold in the previous week.
Before Wednesday’s colossal Powerball jackpot payout, there had been no winner since October 6. Officials initially posted the most recent jackpot payout at $425 million, but revised this on Tuesday to $500 million as ticket sales soared and boosted the big prize. On Wednesday morning, the jackpot inflated again to $550 million.
Although massive, the $550m Powerball jackpot is not actually the largest lottery jackpot in history. That title belongs to the $656 million Mega Millions prize paid out in March.
