Frequently asked questions

Powerball is drawn three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 PM Eastern. Mega Millions is drawn twice a week — Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 PM Eastern. LottoTerminal updates its statistics after every drawing.

Hot numbers are the balls that have been drawn more often than average across the recorded draw history; cold numbers are the ones drawn least often. They describe what has already happened — they are a summary of past results, not a prediction of future ones.

Overdue numbers are ranked by how long it has been since they were last drawn. Cold numbers are ranked by how few times they have been drawn in total. A number can be overdue without being cold — for example, a number drawn often historically but not recently — or cold without being overdue.

No. Every drawing is independent: the machines have no memory, and each combination has exactly the same probability in every draw regardless of what came before. Frequency statistics are useful for understanding history and choosing numbers you like, but they cannot improve your odds of winning.

Official results are usually published with the white balls sorted low to high, but the balls actually leave the machine in a specific order. LottoTerminal records that original draw order and shows position heatmaps of how often each number appears first, second, third, fourth, or fifth.

Powerball jackpot odds are about 1 in 292 million; Mega Millions jackpot odds are about 1 in 290 million. Both games have nine total prize tiers with much better odds for smaller prizes — see the full odds and payout chart for every tier.

From official published drawing results. The archive covers every Powerball and Mega Millions drawing since 2023 and is refreshed after each new draw.