Powerball Lottery Pays $1.8 Billion on Xmas Eve

December 25, 2025

The Arkansas resident who won the $1.817 billion jackpot in Wednesday's Christmas Eve drawing has an amazing life. A three-month period without a top-prize winner for the lottery game was ended by the second-largest lottery windfall in US history.

“Congratulations to the newest Powerball jackpot winner! This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize,” Matt Strawn, Powerball product group chair and Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn said on the  Powerball website. “We also want to thank all the players who joined in this jackpot streak – every ticket purchased helps support public programs and services across the country.”

On September 6, participants in Texas and Missouri earned $1.787 billion in the most recent drawing with a jackpot winner.

A lump sum payment of $834.9 million before taxes or an annuitized reward of $1.817 billion will be available to the fortunate ticket holder. A winner who chooses the annuity option will get one payment right away, followed by 29 annual payments that rise by 5% annually.

Eight tickets nationwide matched all five white balls to win the $1 million Match 5 prize. California, Indiana, Michigan, New York (2), Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were the states where these winning tickets were sold.

California's prize amounts are pari-mutuel as usual, which means that payouts change according to sales and the quantity of winners.

Additionally, 31 winning tickets worth $100,000 and 114 winning tickets worth $50,000 were drawn.

Holly's Powerballs

According to Powerball, the last time someone won a jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011. The contest has previously been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013, according to the business.

The purpose of Powerball's long odds, which are 1 in 292.2 million, is to generate enormous jackpots by enabling prize pools to increase through frequent rollovers. The game is available in 45 states as well as Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2.