On our website, we have frequency charts that show the number of times a particular number has been selected in the drawings for our lotto games.
Do you like the number 8? It’s been selected 211 times as a white ball and 67 times as the Powerball since 1997. Are you partial to the number 39? It’s come up 84 times as a white ball and 11 times as the Mega Ball since 2010.
What’s all that indicate? Nothing, really. It’s just fun to track the drawing results. Lottery games and their drawings are based solely on random outcomes. There truly is no way to predict which numbers will be selected next in our games.
There’s only one “formula” that works when it comes to your chance of winning a lottery prize: You have to buy a ticket to have a chance to win!
So why is there such a variation in the number of times that certain numbers have been selected in lottery drawings? Part of it is just random statistics -- you really can’t predict which numbers will be drawn next. But a big part also is how long some of the numbers have been a part of the games.
Powerball and Mega Millions have both been redesigned several times through the years, with the numbers available to be played in them changing as the games have been updated. Changes like that have a big impact on the number of times some numbers have been selected – or were even eligible to be selected in the drawings.
So, if you like the frequency charts in our lotto games, go right ahead and have fun with them. Click here for the frequency chart in Powerball, here for the chart in Mega Millions, here for the Lotto America chart, and here for the Lucky for Life chart.
You never know when your favorite number might move up on the list!
