Mega Millions tickets will climb to $5, but officials promise bigger prizes and better odds

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The price of a Mega Millions ticket will more than double next year as part of an overhaul of the lottery game.

Starting in April 2025, tickets will increase from $2 to $5, Lottery officials announced Monday.

The increase will mark the second price adjustment since the lottery game launched in 2002, Mega Millions said.

Other changes to debut in the spring include no breakeven prizes, "meaning when a player wins, they'll always win more than the cost of the ticket," Mega Millions said.

Mega Millions said the overhauled game will result in jackpots that start larger, grow faster and are bigger more frequently, as well as better odds of winning the jackpot.

"We are creating a game that both our existing players and people new to Mega Millions will love and get excited about playing," Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement. "We expect more billion-dollar jackpots than ever before, meaning creating more billionaires and many more millionaires as the jackpots climb, plus this game will continue the important legacy of supporting great causes everywhere Mega Millions is played."

Mega Millions has produced six jackpot wins that have exceeded $1 billion -- most recently in March, when a single ticket sold at a ShopRite liquor store in Neptune Township, New Jersey, won the $1.12B jackpot.

Tickets for the lottery game are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The current odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million, according to Mega Millions.