A fortunate Powerball player in Arkansas has claimed a monumental $1.817bn (£1.44bn) jackpot on Christmas Eve, concluding a three-month period without a top-prize winner and securing the second-largest lottery windfall in American history.
A Record-Breaking Jackpot Streak Ends
The winning numbers were drawn on Wednesday, 24 December, bringing to a close a remarkable run of 46 consecutive drawings where no ticket matched all six numbers. The last time a jackpot was won was on 6 September, when players in Missouri and Texas shared a $1.787bn prize.
Final ticket sales pushed the Christmas Eve prize higher than initial forecasts. According to Powerball officials, the winner has the option to take an estimated lump-sum cash payment of $834.9m. Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group chair and Iowa Lottery CEO, celebrated the win, stating it was an "extraordinary, life-changing prize" and thanked players for supporting public programs nationwide.
Christmas Lottery History and How to Play
Powerball confirmed this was the first Christmas Eve jackpot win since 2011. The game has also been won on Christmas Day itself on four occasions, most recently in 2013.
Tickets for the multi-state game cost $2 and are sold in 45 states, plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. While the odds of hitting the jackpot are a daunting 1 in 292.2 million, lottery officials emphasise the odds are significantly better for the game's many smaller-tier prizes.
The enormous prize clearly captured public imagination. "With the prize so high, I just bought one kind of impulsively. Why not?" said Chris Winters, an Indianapolis glass artist, on the day of the draw.
The Scale of the Win
This $1.817bn windfall stands as the largest Powerball prize of 2025 and solidifies its place as the second-largest lottery jackpot ever recorded in the United States. The game is designed to generate such colossal, rolling prizes when the top tier goes unwon, creating these rare, headline-grabbing moments.
