Biggest Jackpots Of All Time

The World's Biggest Jackpots & Winners

Every year the Spanish Christmas Lottery ‘El Gordo’ reminds us that it has the biggest lottery jackpot prize fund in the world. However, this generous lottery spreads the wealth among dozens of lucky jackpot winners, so the actual individual prize received is not especially large. In fact, the biggest jackpot of all comes from the United States.

The world-record $2.04 billion lottery jackpot was won a single Powerball ticket by one extremely lucky winner who bought their ticket in California in November 2022. Earlier in September 2022 there was the 4th biggest jackpot of all time of $1.34 billion which was split by two people. The 2nd biggest jackpot of all time was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in January 2016. There were teo other billion $ jackpots both Mega Millions with a $1.537 billion grand prize in October, 2018 and a 1.050 billion jackpot in January, 2021.

BIGGEST JACKPOTS & LOTTERY WINNINGS IN THE WORLD
Jackpot	Winnings per Ticket	Lottery	Date
$ 2.04 billion	$ 997.6 million*		November 7th, 2022
$ 1,586 billion	$ 328 million*		January 13th, 2016
$ 1,537 billion	$ 878 million		October 23rd, 2018
$ 768 million	$ 477 million		March 27th, 2019
$ 759 million	$ 481 million		August 23rd, 2017
$ 688 million	$ 198 million**		October 27th, 2018
$ 656 million	$ 158 million*		March 30th, 2012
$ 648 million	$ 174 million**		December 17th, 2013
$ 591 million	$ 371 million		May 18th, 2013
$ 588 million	$ 192 million**		November 28th, 2012

Comments
*Won by three players **Won by two players

Our Methods
We accounted for the net jackpot, the sum an individual winner received after tax, or would have received. Lottery winnings are taxable in the U.S., in contrast to Germany and most European countries. For U.S. lotteries we therefore take taxes into account in order to have a fair comparison of actual winnings. Typically, lottery winnings in the U.S. are taxed at an average rate of 25-40%. We used a value of 38%. Note: It is common for U.S. lotteries to pay out lottery jackpots as annuity ("Annuity Option") over several years (e.g. winnings of Mega Millions will be paid out over 30 years).

Record jackpots won at Lottoland will be paid out without tax deductions.

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery_jackpot_records
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotto#Eurojackpot_in_Europa
http://www.megamillions.com/difference-between-cash-value-and-annuity
http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2012/03/30/how-much-tax-will-you-owe-on-540-million-jackpot/