The winning numbers are 27-26-24-19-70, Mega Ball 12.
Paula Otto, the Virginia Lottery's executive director and Mega Millions' lead director, said sales were 40 percent ahead of projections, prompting the game to boost the jackpot for the Friday drawing, which went ahead at 11 p.m. ET.
In New York state, tickets were selling at a pace of $500,000 an hour Friday morning. The state's lottery spokeswoman, Christy Calicchia said sales are normally between $60,000 and $70,000 an hour.
The jumbo jackpots are exactly what the operators of the multi-state lottery want. In an effort to compete with the massive Powerball jackpots, the people behind Mega Millions changed the game.
Instead of picking numbers between 1 and 56, players now pick numbers between 1 and 75. Another change: the gold Mega Millions ball was between 1 and 46. Now, players choose a number between 1 and 15.
The idea behind the changes is to increase the chances of rolling over jackpots and luring players who only play when the jackpots get huge, and it seems to be working.
"I had some spare change. I rarely play, but I think when it gets up above something big like $400 million, I might as well give it a try," said Dean Wood, from Highland Park.
The winning ticket must match the six numbers drawn. The odds of that are about 1 in 259,000,000. The last time someone won the jackpot was Oct. 1, which was before the game changes were implemented.
Mega Millions is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
