Mega Millions frequency tables are everywhere. Most of them are quietly broken, and the breakage got worse in April 2025 when the game changed one of its two machines.
What follows is the count from all 916 draws since the current 70-ball matrix started on 24 October 2017, out of the same database behind our ticket checker. Then the test for whether any of it means anything, and the answer to why the Mega Ball needs counting separately now.
The most drawn Mega Millions numbers
White balls, 1 to 70. The gold Mega Ball comes from a separate machine and gets its own section below, for reasons that turn out to matter.
| Rank | Number | Times drawn | vs expected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 85 | +19.6 |
| 2 | 17 | 82 | +16.6 |
| 3 | 31 | 80 | +14.6 |
| 4 | 3 | 77 | +11.6 |
| 4 | 42 | 77 | +11.6 |
| 6 | 14 | 76 | +10.6 |
| 6 | 38 | 76 | +10.6 |
| 8 | 43 | 75 | +9.6 |
| 9 | 11 | 74 | +8.6 |
| 10 | 8 | 73 | +7.6 |
Each of the 70 balls should appear about 65.4 times across this many draws. Ball 10 is running roughly 20 ahead. Ball 51, at the other end, is running 14 behind.
The least common Mega Millions numbers
| Number | Times drawn | vs expected |
|---|---|---|
| 51 | 51 | -14.4 |
| 67 | 52 | -13.4 |
| 65 | 52 | -13.4 |
| 45 | 53 | -12.4 |
| 23 | 54 | -11.4 |
Is the Mega Millions machine fair? We tested it
A chi-square goodness-of-fit test compares the whole distribution against what a perfectly fair machine would produce. Mega Millions returns a statistic of 61.3 on 69 degrees of freedom.
That is p = 0.73. A fair machine would produce a spread this uneven or worse about three times in four. Statistically speaking this is one of the least interesting results you can get, and for a lottery operator that is the ideal outcome.
The 95% range for any single ball over 916 draws runs from 50 to 81 appearances. Two of the 70 balls fall outside it. Chance alone puts about 3.5 outside, so Mega Millions is marginally more even than a fair machine typically manages. That is not evidence of anything either. It is noise pointing the other way.
For comparison, we ran the same test on Powerball across 1,388 draws and got p = 0.14. Also fair, slightly less flat. The workings are in Powerball most common numbers.
The Mega Ball changed in 2025, and it breaks tables
This is the part almost nobody handles correctly.
In April 2025 Mega Millions overhauled the game. Ticket prices rose, a multiplier was built into every ticket, and the gold Mega Ball pool shrank from 25 balls to 24. In our data the last appearance of Mega Ball 25 is the draw of 4 April 2025, and no draw since has produced a Mega Ball above 24.
So Mega Ball 25 sits on 36 appearances, permanently. It cannot rise. Any frequency table that ranks it alongside the others is comparing a retired ball against live ones, and every remaining ball’s odds improved that day from 1 in 25 to 1 in 24.
| Mega Ball | Times drawn (all 916) |
|---|---|
| 24 | 47 |
| 22 | 47 |
| 18 | 44 |
| 11 | 42 |
| 4 | 41 |
Only 138 draws have been held under the 24-ball pool. That is too few to rank meaningfully: the leader has 12 appearances and the gap between first and tenth is noise. We are showing the full-period figures and telling you the caveat, rather than publishing a table that looks precise and is not.
The white balls are unaffected. That machine has held 70 balls throughout, so the count above is clean across all 916 draws.
A finding we are choosing not to sell you
While counting, we checked how often all five white balls land in 1 to 31, the range people fill from birthdays.
It happened 21 times in 916 draws. Chance predicts about 12.9. That is a z-score of 2.29, which in most contexts gets called statistically significant and would make a very shareable headline.
We do not believe it, and you should not either.
The reason is that this was one of perhaps thirty things we could have measured. Run thirty comparisons against a fair machine and roughly one or two will clear the usual significance line by luck alone. Reporting the one that cleared it, while staying quiet about the ones that did not, is how most lottery pattern claims are manufactured. The full-distribution test on the same data says p = 0.73.
Powerball, incidentally, produces the all-low result 1.5% of the time against a chance prediction of 1.5%. If a real force were pushing draws toward low numbers, it would not skip one of two nearly identical machines.
Every Mega Millions number, ranked
All 70 white balls across 916 draws. Expected is 65.4 for every row.
| No. | Drawn | No. | Drawn | No. | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 61 | 25 | 63 | 49 | 58 |
| 2 | 64 | 26 | 69 | 50 | 55 |
| 3 | 77 | 27 | 66 | 51 | 51 |
| 4 | 67 | 28 | 61 | 52 | 68 |
| 5 | 58 | 29 | 68 | 53 | 63 |
| 6 | 64 | 30 | 68 | 54 | 57 |
| 7 | 61 | 31 | 80 | 55 | 58 |
| 8 | 73 | 32 | 59 | 56 | 68 |
| 9 | 57 | 33 | 68 | 57 | 62 |
| 10 | 85 | 34 | 64 | 58 | 73 |
| 11 | 74 | 35 | 56 | 59 | 69 |
| 12 | 60 | 36 | 56 | 60 | 57 |
| 13 | 65 | 37 | 63 | 61 | 64 |
| 14 | 76 | 38 | 76 | 62 | 68 |
| 15 | 69 | 39 | 64 | 63 | 62 |
| 16 | 66 | 40 | 71 | 64 | 73 |
| 17 | 82 | 41 | 59 | 65 | 52 |
| 18 | 73 | 42 | 77 | 66 | 73 |
| 19 | 69 | 43 | 75 | 67 | 52 |
| 20 | 72 | 44 | 66 | 68 | 58 |
| 21 | 61 | 45 | 53 | 69 | 62 |
| 22 | 73 | 46 | 71 | 70 | 64 |
| 23 | 54 | 47 | 58 | ||
| 24 | 72 | 48 | 69 |
Do the most common numbers win more often?
No. Ball 10 has appeared 85 times and enters tonight’s draw with the same chance as ball 51, which has appeared 51 times. Five balls from 70 gives every one of them a 7.1% chance of being drawn, every time.
Draws are independent. The machine cannot remember 2019, and it has no mechanism for balancing the books later. A number that looks overdue is a number that has been unlucky, and unluckiness does not accumulate into a debt.
Does any of this help you pick?
Not for winning. For keeping, slightly.
Mega Millions has paid a jackpot 52 times in this period, and two of those were split between two tickets. Four percent. Which numbers you choose has no effect on whether you win, but it does affect whether you share, because other players cluster on birthdays, patterns and published hot lists. We set out what actually follows from that in how to pick lottery numbers.
Holding a ticket already? The checker on our homepage will tell you what it did against the latest draw, free and with no account.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common Mega Millions number?
The most common Mega Millions number is 10, drawn 85 times in the 916 draws held since October 2017. It is followed by 17 with 82 appearances, 31 with 80, and 3 and 42 with 77 each.
What are the most drawn Mega Millions numbers?
The ten most drawn Mega Millions white balls are 10 (85), 17 (82), 31 (80), 3 and 42 (77 each), 14 and 38 (76 each), 43 (75), 11 (74) and 8 (73). Expected for any ball over this period is 65.4 appearances.
What is the least common Mega Millions number?
The least common Mega Millions number is 51, drawn 51 times against an expected 65.4. Next lowest are 67 and 65 on 52 each, 45 on 53 and 23 on 54.
What is the most common Mega Ball?
Across all 916 draws the most common Mega Balls are 24 and 22 with 47 appearances each, then 18 with 44, 11 with 42 and 4 with 41. These counts span two different pool sizes, because the Mega Ball pool shrank from 25 balls to 24 in April 2025.
Did Mega Millions change in 2025?
Yes. In April 2025 Mega Millions raised its ticket price, built a multiplier into every ticket, and reduced the Mega Ball pool from 25 balls to 24. The last draw containing Mega Ball 25 was 4 April 2025, so that ball is permanently frozen at 36 appearances and should not be ranked against balls still in play.
Are Mega Millions draws random?
Yes, as far as the record can show. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test across all 70 white balls returns p = 0.73, meaning the observed spread is close to exactly what a fair machine produces. Only 2 of the 70 balls fall outside the 95% expected range, where chance alone would put about 3.5.
What are the odds of winning Mega Millions?
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 290,472,336, from choosing 5 numbers out of 70 plus one Mega Ball out of 24. Every combination carries those same odds in every draw, whatever its past frequency.
Key takeaways
- The most drawn Mega Millions number since October 2017 is 10, at 85 appearances in 916 draws. The least drawn is 51, at 51.
- Expected for any ball is 65.4. A chi-square test returns p = 0.73, a fair machine.
- The Mega Ball pool shrank from 25 to 24 in April 2025. Ball 25 is frozen at 36 appearances and should not be ranked against live balls.
- White-ball counts are unaffected by that change and are clean across the full period.
- An apparent bias toward low numbers (z = 2.29) is what turns up when you run enough comparisons. The full-distribution test says the machine is fair.
Counts taken from LottoScan’s draw database on 3 August 2026, covering all 916 Mega Millions draws from 24 October 2017 to 31 July 2026. LottoScan is unofficial and not affiliated with the Mega Millions Consortium or any lottery operator.