The Mega Millions jackpot for Tuesday, Dec. 16, is at $80 million, as Powerball surpasses the $1 billion mark. Check your tickets for winning numbers!

Mega Millions followed a similar path. Its first jackpot winner in 2002 took home $28 million. Its record prize — a $1.602 billion jackpot won on Aug. 8, 2023 — ranks as the fourth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

Powerball's latest jackpot run into 10-figure territory is not happening in a vacuum. It is unfolding in a lottery landscape reshaped by Mega Millions, shifting player habits and rule tweaks that quietly steer billions of dollars in ticket sales.

Whether or not anyone wins the billion-dollar Powerball jackpot on Saturday, at least one of the losers might already be known: Mega Millions.

Publix has sold winning Powerball, Mega Millions tickets nearing $1 billion or more in Neptune Beach and Melbourne Beach, Florida, and Newnan, Georgia

The last players from Michigan to win a Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot is the Breakfast Club lottery club which claimed an $842 million jackpot in June 2024. The members plan to use the money to buy a home in Florida and travel.

After no one matched all five numbers plus the Mega Ball in the Tuesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day Mega Millions drawing, the jackpot jumped from $900 million to $965 million overnight, eventually reaching $980 million for Friday, Nov. 14. If the drawing rolls over, it'll certainly become another billion-dollar jackpot.

Massive jackpots are up for grabs as the California Powerball lottery soars past $1 billion, and the Mega Millions hits $80 million ahead of the Christmas holiday. • Video