Santa may deliver the ultimate Christmas gift to someone on the nice list this year – the $1.7 billion Powerball jackpot.
The winning numbers for the one of the largest Powerball jackpot in history picked in Wednesday’s drawing were: 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59 with Powerball 19.
The jackpot is the game’s second biggest this year after 46 consecutive draws without a winner.
A $1.787 billion Powerball jackpot that was won in September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas was the second-largest prize in U.S. lottery history.
In this July 18, 2023, file photo, Powerball play slips are displayed in a convenience store in Los Angeles.
Mario Tama/Getty Images, FILE
If no one wins, the next drawing will be Saturday, Dec. 27.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in over 292 million, according to Powerball.
Customers wait in line to purchase lottery tickets on Dec. 1, 2025, in Hawthorne, Calif.
Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Tim Chartier, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Davidson College, likens trying to win the Powerball jackpot with those odds to selecting a specific second over a nine-year span, and then attempting to guess that specific second. He told ABC News that buying more tickets does increase a player’s odds of winning – but only marginally.
“If you buy 100 tickets, it’s true that you actually multiply your chance of winning by 100,” Chartier said, but also noted that “buying 100 tickets is like having just 100 guesses to guess that one second in a nine-year span, so it’s still not terribly likely.”
A clerk displays Powerball lottery tickets at a convenience store on December 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
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Powerball winners have a choice between a lump-sum cash payment of $781.3 million or an annuitized prize for the full amount that would be paid in annual payments. Both amounts are before taxes.
To win the jackpot, players must purchase a $2 Powerball ticket and select five white numbers between 1 and 69 and one red Powerball number between 1 and 26. The prize grows until someone matches the five white numbers in any order and the red Powerball.
You can watch the drawing live on the Powerball website.
Top 10 Powerball jackpots and winning states
1. $2.04 billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – California
2. $1.787 billion – Sept. 6, 2025 – Missouri, Texas
3. $1.765 billion – Oct. 11, 2023 – California
4. $1.7 billion (current estimated jackpot)
5. $1.586 billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – California, Florida, Tennessee
6. $1.326 billion – April 6, 2024 – Oregon
7. $1.08 billion – July 19, 2023 – California
8. $842.4 million – Jan. 1, 2024 – Michigan
9. $768.4 million – March 27, 2019 – Wisconsin
10. $758.7 million – Aug. 23, 2017 – Massachusetts