Powerball jackpot jumps again - now at $1.5 billion - after nobody wins on Wednesday

The next drawing is set to take place on December 20 at 10:59 pm ET and will be streamed live on Powerball.com

The Powerball jackpot has grown to $1.5 billion after no one managed to win the prize following Wednesday’s drawing.

Just in time to ease a bit of the holiday shopping pressure, the Powerball's $1.5 billion jackpot will next go up for grabs on Saturday, December 20. It will be the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot in the game's history and the seventh-largest jackpot among all U.S. lotteries.

If one person wins and takes a payout, they'd go home with approximately $572.1 million if they choose the lump sum option. Lottery winnings are heavily taxed. An automatic 37 percent goes to the federal government. Some states will also tax lottery winnings between 2.9 to 10.9 percent.

The most recent drawing occurred on Wednesday. The numbers called in that drawing were 25, 33, 53, 62, and 66 with a red Powerball of 17 and a 4x Power Play multiplier.

No one won the jackpot, but two tickets sold in Arizona and Massachusetts hit for $ 2 million each through a five-number match and correct Power Play multiplier. Six tickets won $1 million each after matching five numbers. Three of those tickets were sold in New York, and one each was sold in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

A crowd forms outside an Arizona market as lotto players wait to purchase Powerball tickets. The Powerball drawing on December 20, 2025 will be for a $1.5 billion jackpot, the fifth-largest in the game’s history. (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The last Powerball win was on September 6. There have been 44 drawings since then, and none have produced jackpot winners.

That's not for lack of trying.

Millions of people play the Powerball each drawing — and those numbers spike during big jackpot drawings — but even with a huge player base, the hopes of winning are still fairly low.

The odds of actually winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. For perspective, the odds of being hit by lightning twice are 1 in 19 million. The odds of being eaten — not just bitten — by a shark are 1 in 264 million.

Despite the old lotto gambler's adage that "somebody's got to win," they actually do not in the Powerball drawing, at least not right away. Players can chase the jackpot for weeks or months to not only lose themselves, but also see no other player win, either.

The game's absurd odds lets it grow and grow until it has staggering jackpots, such as the $1.5 billion December 20 offering. In 2016, the jackpot cleared $1.5 billion and was split between three people. In 2023, the jackpot hit $1.765 billion and was won by a player in California. In September, the jackpot hit $1.787 billion and was won by two players in Missouri and Texas.

The largest jackpot in the game's history cleared $2 billion. That 2022 prize was taken home in California.

The next drawing is set to take place at 10:59 pm ET and will be streamed live on Powerball.com