Player Question: The Megaplier seems to come up a lot as 3. Is something wrong?

A player who called us this week thought something had gone wrong with the Megaplier® option in the Mega Millions® game. The short answer is: Nothing is wrong. But here’s the background involved, in case you’ve ever wondered about the same thing.

The man said he noticed that the Megaplier number has come up as 3 a lot in recent drawings, and he wondered if that meant something is wrong. In reality, the Megaplier number is being randomly selected as usual in each Mega Millions drawing. But it is likely that the Megaplier will come up as 2 or 3 more often.

How The Megaplier Works

You may already know that you can add the Megaplier option to your play in the Mega Millions game for an extra $1, and it will multiply any prize you win, except the jackpot.

So, for example, if your ticket matches the five white balls but misses the yellow Mega Ball, you’d win a $1 million prize. But if you’ve added the Megaplier option to your ticket and the multiplier number that night is 3, your prize will be tripled to $3 million.

That’s similar to the Power Play® option in Powerball® and the All Star Bonus® option in Lotto America®. The details for each multiplier option are in the game rules available on our website.

But when it comes to Mega Millions specifically, why can 2 or 3 be chosen more often as the multiplier? It’s due to the universe of numbers available to be selected as the Megaplier option.

There are 15 numbers in the Megaplier pool. Of them, 5 are 2s, 6 are 3s, 3 are 4s and 1 is a 5. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

15 Total Numbers In Megaplier Pool
2X = 5
3X = 6
4X = 3
5X = 1

So, does it stand to reason that the Megaplier number will come up more often as 2 or 3? Yes. But the other numbers also have a shot.

The Power Play option in Powerball and the All Star Bonus option in Lotto America work in a similar way.

43 Total Numbers In Power Play Pool
2X = 24
3X = 13
4X = 3
5X = 2
10X = 1

32 Total Numbers In All Star Bonus Pool
2X = 15
3X = 10
4X = 4
5X = 3

Whether you play the lottery or not, we want everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works. Details like the ones we've provided here can help make that happen.

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

You're welcome, Jim. The numbers tell the story, happy to share it.

[Jim Martin]

I've often thought the same thing about the multipliers always
seeming to be two or three
Thanks for the explanation