Ohio Ticket Wins $1 Million as Powerball Jackpot Rolls to $856 Million for Saturday's Drawing

No one matched all six numbers in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing, pushing the jackpot to an estimated $856 million ahead of Saturday's drawing, even as a single Ohio ticket walked away with a $1 million consolation prize after matching five white balls.

According to Powerball's website, the winning ticket sold in Ohio matched all five white balls but missed the red Powerball number, securing the game's second-tier prize of $1 million. The Ohio Lottery had not disclosed where the ticket was sold as of Thursday morning, and it remained unclear whether the winner had come forward to claim the prize.

Wednesday's Numbers

The winning numbers drawn Wednesday night were 14, 20, 59, 60 and 61, with a Powerball number of 25 and a 2X Power Play multiplier in effect. Beyond the Ohio million-dollar winner, an additional 20 tickets nationwide matched four white balls plus the Powerball, each winning $50,000. Three of those 20 tickets had also purchased the Power Play add-on, doubling their winnings to $100,000 apiece.

Wednesday's drawing carried an advertised jackpot of $786 million, with an estimated cash value of $341.6 million, which lottery officials noted ranked as the ninth-largest jackpot in the game's history at the time of the drawing. With no winner matching all six numbers, the jackpot has now rolled over to an estimated $856 million for Saturday's drawing, with a cash value of approximately $372 million, moving the prize up to the eighth-largest in Powerball history.

A Prize That Keeps Climbing

Saturday's jackpot now trails only a small handful of prizes in the game's history, including the record $2.04 billion jackpot won in California in November 2022, the $1.817 billion prize claimed in Arkansas on Christmas Eve 2025, and jackpots won in Missouri and Texas, California, and Oregon in recent years that each topped $1 billion.

The current jackpot marks the largest Powerball prize since the $1.817 billion jackpot won in Arkansas last December, and it stands as the largest lottery jackpot of 2026 so far, according to lottery officials.

A Dry Spell Since May

Powerball's jackpot has now rolled over for roughly three months without a grand-prize winner. The game was last won on May 2, when two tickets, one sold in Florida and one in Texas, split a $20 million jackpot. Since that drawing, the game has gone through 40 consecutive drawings without producing a jackpot winner, allowing the prize to steadily climb toward its current total.

Powerball drawings are held three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights, with each drawing broadcast live at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time from the game's draw studio in Florida and streamed on Powerball's official website. Tickets cost $2 per play, with an optional $1 Power Play add-on available to multiply any non-jackpot prize won.

What a Winner Would Actually Take Home

Should a player match all six numbers Saturday, they would face a choice between two payout structures: a lump-sum cash payment of approximately $372 million, or an annuitized prize paid out as an initial payment followed by 29 additional annual installments, each 5% larger than the previous year, totaling the full $856 million over three decades. Lottery officials note that the vast majority of jackpot winners historically choose the lump-sum cash option rather than the long-term annuity.

Whichever option a winner selects, the advertised prize does not reflect what they would actually receive after taxes. Federal withholding alone would reduce a lump-sum cash prize by 24% immediately, before any additional state or local tax obligations are factored in, meaning the effective take-home total for a winner choosing the cash option would fall well below the advertised $372 million cash value.

Long Odds, Growing Player Base

The odds of matching all six numbers to win the Powerball jackpot remain exceedingly long, at approximately 1 in 292.2 million. Powerball tickets are currently sold in 45 U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and, notably, the United Kingdom, following an expansion of the game's international footprint. Lottery officials have said that expanded player base is expected to help Powerball jackpots grow more quickly going forward, as a larger pool of ticket sales feeds directly into the size of the advertised prize.

A Summer of Rising Jackpots

Saturday's drawing continues what lottery officials have described as a summer surge for the Powerball jackpot, with the prize climbing steadily from its most recent reset in early May. The current run places 2026 among the more active years for lottery jackpot growth in recent memory, with Saturday's expected $856 million prize already ranking among the largest ever offered in the game's history, regardless of whether it is ultimately claimed this weekend or continues rolling into future drawings.

The next Powerball drawing is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8, at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time, with tickets available for purchase up until each state's specific cutoff time ahead of the draw. Players hoping to check whether they hold a winning ticket from Wednesday's drawing, including the $1 million Ohio prize or one of the 20 $50,000 winners, can do so through official state lottery websites or the national Powerball website, where full winning-number histories and prize breakdowns are published following each drawing.