Powerball jackpot hits $526M: Are these numbers 'due' for a win?

Written By Apo August 12, 2025 Add Comment

(NEXSTAR) — After another winnerless drawing Monday night, the Powerball jackpot has grown to an estimated $526 million. While you can't exactly increase your odds of winning, there's no denying some numbers may be due to align and secure you a payout.

At its current size, the Powerball jackpot is the second-largest of the year (including Mega Millions), and the second-largest since a $1.326 billion payout was secured by a ticket in Oregon in April 2024.

Despite its growing value, you still have a 1 in 292.2 million chance of winning the jackpot. Every set of numbers printed on tickets also has an equal chance of winning.

There are numbers that have been hotter than others during the current jackpot run.

Since the first Powerball drawing in 1992, there have been more than 3,600 drawings, data from Powerball.net shows. The five numbers that have been drawn the most — 39, 23, 32, 36, and 16 — have all been pulled more than 340 times. Most recently among them is 16, which was pulled during Monday's drawing. The five most drawn red Powerball numbers over the same time span are 20, 18, 9, 24, and 6. The latter hasn't been pulled since June 30.

If you consider only the numbers in the current pool, which was altered in 2015, the five most-drawn main numbers are 21, 61, 23, 33, and 69. Monday, 33 made its most recent appearance. Among the red Powerball numbers, 4, 21, 24, 18, and 14 are the most popular.

Just one of those popular main numbers, 23, and two of the red Powerball numbers, 24 and 21, have been among the most drawn during the latest jackpot series (since the grand prize was won in May).

The "hottest" number has been 35, which has been drawn seven times since May, according to game records. Others include 43, drawn six times, and 8, 23, and 28, all of which have been pulled five times. The No. 25 red Powerball has come up five times, while 21, 24, and 2 were in three drawings each. Four numbers — 8, 3, 22, and 20 — have appeared twice each.

Through the last 31 drawings, there remain some numbers that have not been pulled. From the main pool of 69 numbers, that includes 10, 20, 22, 26, 39, 41, 47, 56, 66, and 68. For the Powerball numbers, it's 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, and 26. You could consider these numbers "cold" or "overdue," lottery aficionados say.

Does this mean you should pick the hottest numbers, or maybe all of the overdue numbers?

Some players may swear by one method or another, but neither mathematically improves your odds. That means the numbers drawn on Monday have the same slim chance of being drawn again Wednesday, or next week, or next month.

Picking numbers others may be less likely to pick can, however, cut your chances of having to split the lottery prize with other winners. Rong Chen, professor and chair of the Department of Statistics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, previously suggested numbers larger than 31 (this avoids dates like birthdays) and avoiding numbers along the edges or corners of the ticket form.

There may be some truth in playing the same numbers every time and hoping for a win. A South Carolina lottery player recently won a $507,000 jackpot on a state game after playing the same numbers for years.

Whether you rely on a specific set of numbers or prefer a random draw, the next Powerball drawing is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:59 p.m. ET. Powerball is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 each.

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