A Powerball player in Arkansas is getting an unforgettable Christmas gift — a ticket sold there matched all six numbers to win a $1.817 billion jackpot — the second biggest U.S. lottery prize ever, according to Powerball.
The winning numbers picked in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing were: 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59 with Powerball 19.
The winner has the choice between a lump sum cash payment of $834.9 million or an annuitized prize paid out over about 30 years of the full prize amount. Both options are before taxes.
The Christmas Eve jackpot was the game’s second billion-dollar-plus prize this year after 46 consecutive draws without a winner.
A $1.787 billion Powerball jackpot that was won in September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas was the third-largest prize in U.S. lottery history.
In this July 18, 2023, file photo, Powerball play slips are displayed in a convenience store in Los Angeles.
Mario Tama/Getty Images, FILE
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in over 292 million, according to Powerball.
Customers wait in line to purchase lottery tickets on Dec. 1, 2025, in Hawthorne, Calif.
Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Tim Chartier, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Davidson College, likened trying to win the Powerball jackpot with those odds to selecting a specific second over a nine-year span, and then attempting to guess that specific second. He told ABC News that buying more tickets does increase a player’s odds of winning – but only marginally.
“If you buy 100 tickets, it’s true that you actually multiply your chance of winning by 100,” Chartier said, but also noted that “buying 100 tickets is like having just 100 guesses to guess that one second in a nine-year span, so it’s still not terribly likely.”
A clerk displays Powerball lottery tickets at a convenience store on December 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
You can watch the drawing live on the Powerball website.
Top 10 Powerball jackpots and winning states
1. $2.04 billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – California
2. $1.817 billion (current jackpot) – Arkansas
3. $1.787 billion – Sept. 6, 2025 – Missouri, Texas
4. $1.765 billion – Oct. 11, 2023 – California
5. $1.586 billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – California, Florida, Tennessee
6. $1.326 billion – April 6, 2024 – Oregon
7. $1.08 billion – July 19, 2023 – California
8. $842.4 million – Jan. 1, 2024 – Michigan
9. $768.4 million – March 27, 2019 – Wisconsin
10. $758.7 million – Aug. 23, 2017 – Massachusetts
