Happy birthday to Powerball!
The popular game is celebrating its 30th birthday this week! Ticket sales began nationwide and in Wisconsin on April 19, 1992, for the game’s first drawing held on April 22, 1992. In addition to creating 1.7 billion prize winners over the past three decades, the game has generated more than $27 billion to fund vital public services and programs across the country.
“For 30 years, Powerball has been America’s jackpot game,” said May Scheve Reardon, Powerball Product Group Chair and Missouri Lottery Executive Director. “We want to thank our players who have joined us on this journey and dreamed of winning Powerball.
The Powerball game has produced some of the biggest wins in lottery history, including the world record $1.586 billion jackpot set in January 2016. Other notable snapshots from the past 30 years include:
- Jackpot-winning tickets: 393
- $2 million-winning tickets: 470
- $1 million-winning tickets: 2,424
- Overall prize-winning tickets: 1.75 billion
- Total jackpot prizes paid: $25 billion
- Total lower-tier cash prizes: $25 billion
Wisconsin has had 19 total Powerball jackpot wins, ranking the Badger State fourth on the Powerball all-time jackpot list. On January 5, 2022, a couple from Oneida became the latest Wisconsin Powerball jackpot winners. They split a $632.6 million jackpot with another winner from California.
