What numbers are most likely to win Powerball? It’s a question many of us wish we knew the answer to.
Wouldn’t we all like to be as lucky as the two Australian winners of Powerball’s biggest ever jackpot in February 2024?
A couple from Singleton, in NSW’s Hunter Valley, and a Queensland woman both scooped a whopping $100 million prize that time – with the Brisbane woman learning she’d won while she was getting ready to go to the gym at 6am.
“Oh my god. Is this even real?” she asked when officials confirmed the win.
The Singleton couple discovered their new multi-millionaire status while in bed after the draw.
“I mean, you joke about winning but never expect it to happen to you,” one of the duo said.
“Well, I absolutely won’t be working anymore! I mean, honestly, do I really need to?”
The odds of winning the jackpot that time around? A jaw-dropping 134 million to one.
How to play Powerball
To bet on Powerball, you can fill up a play slip at a local news agency or convenience store, or log into the The Lott mobile phone app and choose your numbers there.
You have to pick two sets of numbers: seven main numbers from one to 35, then one Powerball number from one to 20.
After that, make sure you know which Powerball draw you’ve entered, cross your fingers, and keep your ticket safe.
Winning the jackpot means that you’ve matched all seven main numbers and the Powerball number. But don’t worry if you didn’t get to match everything.
There’s also a corresponding prize depending on how many main numbers you’ve correctly matched, with and without the Powerball.
There are multiple ways of knowing if you’re walking home with extra cash from Powerball. Nowadays, the most popular way is to check it online or on the app. But the classic way of getting the results is watching the Powerball numbers drawn live on TV. Powerball is drawn on a Thursday night at 8.30pm AEST and broadcast live on Channel 7 or 7TWO, depending on your state or territory.
What numbers are most likely to win Powerball?
Whether you stick to the same numbers each and every week or prefer to rely on Quick Picks, there are some statistics you’ll want to bear in mind for the next time you play Powerball.
Powerball.net offers a complete set of statistics for Australian players, so you can make a decision on your picks knowing the most common Powerball numbers, the numbers drawn least often, and those that are most overdue.
Australia’s most common Powerball winning numbers.
At the time of writing, Powerball.net had stats on the 12 most common numbers in Australia across all Powerball draws.
For main numbers, these were:
5 – drawn 239 times
22 – drawn 235 times
23 – drawn 234 times
7 – drawn 233 times
19 – drawn 232 times
24 – drawn 227 times
For Powerball numbers, these were:
19 – drawn 62 times
15 – drawn 60 times
2 – drawn 60 times
18 – drawn 59 times
10 – drawn 58 times
6 – drawn 57 times
There was also a list of numbers that were described as “most overdue”.
For main numbers, these were: 43, 41, 42, 45, 44, 36
For Powerball numbers, these were: 30, 34, 39, 40, 36, 43
What is the best strategy to win Powerball?
When it comes to the best strategy for winning big, you might like to take note of some tips from seven-time jackpot winner Richard Lustig.
The Florida man won $AU10,000 back in 1992 before bagging some serious cash over and over again, leading him to write a book called Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery, where he shared strategies he believed enhanced his odds of winning.
“I didn’t even realise that I had a method until my fourth win. Even though everybody else was saying, ‘Oh, you’re just a lucky guy, there’s no such thing as a method.’ I’m saying, ‘I won four times. How can you say that’s just luck?’” Richard said.
“The three things you can do to increase your chances of winning a lottery game are to pick your own numbers and stick with them every time,” Lustig told Unilad in May 2024. “Set a budget, and never spend rent or grocery money to play a lottery game.”
Richard also suggested joining a lottery pool (or syndicate) – like US Powerball winner Theodorus Struyck did before winning $US1.765 billion in October 2023.
This allows players to group together to buy tickets and agree to share any winnings.
Oz Lotteries says that joining a Lotto Syndicate can give you “more chances to win” with “up to 10 times more entries”.
“Lotto Syndicates split up a large ticket to share the cost with other players,” it states on its website. “If the syndicate wins, the prizes are shared equally among the syndicate shares.”
In February 2022, 250 residents of a small West Australian city took home a combined $AU63 million thanks to their lottery syndicate.
