Copyright © 2026 VPM, all rights reserved.
PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
VPM News Morning Edition
NEXT UP: 9:00 AM

Thanks to our sponsors – Become a Sponsor

Powerball jackpot climbs to $875 million, the third-largest on record

A display panel advertises tickets for a Powerball drawing at a convenience store, Nov. 7, 2022, in Renfrew, Pa. The Powerball jackpot soared to an estimated $875 million after no winning ticket was sold for Wednesday's drawing.
Keith Srakocic / AP
A display panel advertises tickets for a Powerball drawing at a convenience store, Nov. 7, 2022, in Renfrew, Pa. The Powerball jackpot soared to an estimated $875 million after no winning ticket was sold for Wednesday's drawing.

The Powerball jackpot has grown yet again, reaching an estimated $875 million — making it one of the largest in the game’s history.

No players were able to match all six winning numbers after Wednesday night’s drawing, which were 23-35-45-66-67 and a Powerball of 20.

The new jackpot for Saturday’s drawing is the third-largest in the lottery game’s history, coming behind the world record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won last year and the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won in 2016.

If someone matches all six numbers and wins Saturday’s drawing, the winner has a chance to get the $875 million prize paid out in yearly increments or choose to get the one-time lump sum of $441.9 million before taxes.

There have now been 36 consecutive Powerball drawings without a big winner, according to game officials. The last Powerball jackpot won was on April 19 after a ticket sold in Ohio matched the winning numbers and won the prize of $252.6 million.

Research shows that roughly 60% of the revenue generated from U.S. state lotteries goes directly to winners, while the states keep the remaining cash after paying out the prize money and paying certain costs such as advertisements. But for larger lotteries, such as Mega Millions or Powerball, half of the ticket revenue goes toward the game’s prize pool.

Powerball is played in 45 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Five states — Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada — don’t sell lottery tickets.)

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. utm

Jonathan Franklin is a reporter on the Newsdesk covering both race & identity and breaking news.

For the last few years, he has been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news across the nation's capital.

Franklin has been at the forefront of reporting on some of the most significant national stories to break during his time at NPR, including the Tops Supermarket mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., the Waukesha, Wis., Christmas parade attack, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

His reporting can be seen and heard across NPR's digital, social and audio platforms — such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition and NPR News Now.

He is also a frequent contributor to ESPN's The Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.

Prior to NPR, Franklin served as a digital multimedia journalist for WUSA, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., where he covered the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Black community, D.C.'s racial protests and demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

You can quickly scan for Franklin's byline and find hundreds of breaking news and feature stories filled with engaging ledes, videos and live reporting along with well-calibrated anecdotes that center the individuals and communities in service of the journalism he's pursuing.

He began his journalism career as a news fellow and freelance journalist for WDCW in Washington.

Originally from Columbia, S.C., Franklin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University with a master's in journalism (with an emphasis in broadcast and digital journalism) and Cum Laude from Wofford College with undergraduate degrees in English/digital media and African/African-American studies.

Franklin is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., both the National and Washington Associations of Black Journalists, Online News Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Related Stories