Christmas Eve Miracle: Arkansas Player Hits $1.817B Powerball Jackpot

A Christmas Eve Powerball ticket sold in Arkansas just made history, landing a jaw-dropping $1.817 billion jackpot and snapping a three-month streak with no top-prize winner.

The lucky numbers drawn Wednesday night were 04, 25, 31, 52, 59, with Powerball 19 sealing the win. Late ticket sales pushed the prize even higher than expected, making it the second-largest lottery jackpot ever in the U.S. and the biggest Powerball prize of 2025. The winner can choose a lump-sum cash option of about $834.9 million.

This massive win came after 46 straight drawings without a jackpot winner. The previous Powerball jackpot was hit back in September, when tickets in Missouri and Texas split a $1.787 billion prize.

A few fun facts from this historic draw:

• It’s only the second time a Powerball jackpot ticket has been sold in Arkansas (the first was in 2010).

• The last Christmas Eve jackpot win happened in 2011.

• Powerball has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.

Powerball officials say the game’s long odds — about 1 in 292 million — are what allow jackpots to grow this big, though many players still score smaller prizes along the way.

With tickets priced at just $2, the game is played in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As one player put it, when the prize gets this high, sometimes you just think… why not?