There are a few ingredients necessary to create lottery jackpots worth millions or billions of dollars. The Mega Millions jackpot won in July had also been building for over three months. It went through more than 40 drawings – of which there are three each week – before a ticket was able to match all five main numbers and the Powerball number. The $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won during the Election Day drawing ( technical issues kept the drawing from happening on Monday) had been building since early August. The Mega Millions jackpot was at $189 million as of Thursday.īased on the record-setting prizes won in both games this year, it will take weeks or even months of drawings without a grand prize winner before we see another record-setting jackpot. Here’s howĪfter Wednesday night’s drawing, the current Powerball jackpot sits at $47 million. Didn’t win the Powerball jackpot? You may still have won money.