TAMPA, Fla. — After months of an ever-growing jackpot, one lucky ticket holder in California finally won the coveted $1.73 billion in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing.
While the jackpot was won, a couple of people in Florida are also waking up as instant millionaires. Two people in Florida matched all five white balls but not the Powerball to win $1 million each. In addition, two people from California, one in New York, one in Oklahoma and one in Virginia also came away with $1 million.
Two people, one from Arizona and the other from Pennsylvania, also matched all five white balls and chose the power play option, meaning they came away with $2 million.
The winning numbers are 24-52-40-22-64 Powerball 10 and 2X Power Play.
The $1.73 billion prize was the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history, just behind the record-breaking $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot last November.
More than 30 drawings had gone by without a grand prize winner. The last time someone won the top prize was on July 19.
This was also the first time in the game's history that back-to-back cycles have generated billion-dollar prizes, according to Powerball.
The winner has the option to take the full jackpot paid out over 30 years, or a smaller cash payout. Winners almost always take the cash option, which for Wednesday was $756.6 million.
What are my chances of winning the Powerball?
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are one in 292.2 million.
Over the past few years, huge lottery jackpots have become more common as lottery officials have changed the rules and ticket prices to boost top prizes.
Powerball's biggest change came in 2021 when officials decided to add a Monday drawing to its weekly lineup of Wednesday and Saturday evening drawings. At the time of the announcement, Powerball proclaimed the addition of the Monday drawing would lead to "larger, faster-growing jackpots."
TEGNA Digital contributed to this report.