In the current 5/70+1/25 Mega Millions format, white ball 17 is the most frequently drawn white ball — approximately 80 appearances (~8.7%) across roughly 924 draws since October 2017. Mega Ball 22 leads its pool with approximately 44 appearances. Neither figure is predictive: each draw is an independent event unaffected by history.
Whenever a Mega Millions jackpot climbs, searches for hot numbers spike. We ranked all 70 white balls and all 25 Mega Balls by how often each has appeared across every draw since the October 2017 matrix change to the current 5/70+1/25 format — then ran the honest math on whether frequency history predicts the next draw at all.
How we counted
Mega Millions has changed its format twice in the last decade. October 2013 brought the first major redesign, expanding the white ball pool to 75 and shrinking the Mega Ball pool to 15. Then in October 2017, the game shifted to its current structure: five white balls from 1–70, one Mega Ball from 1–25.
The frequency counts in this article cover draws from October 31, 2017 through the most recent draw in the JackpotTeller database — approximately 924 draws as of publication, updated after each draw. That is the only era where all 70 white balls and all 25 Mega Balls exist as valid outcomes.
Why era-splitting matters: pooling pre- and post-2017 data would mix ball 71 (valid in the old 5/75 format, impossible today) with current balls. Any frequency rank built on pooled eras produces a distorted picture of the game you are actually playing. All rankings below are current-era only.
Which Mega Millions numbers are drawn most often?
Across roughly 924 draws, each white ball has an expected appearance rate of about 7.1% (approximately 66 draws). The most commonly drawn balls have cleared that baseline by 20–25%, a deviation that sounds impressive until you run the statistics below.
| Rank | Ball | Appearances | % of Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | 80 | 8.7% |
| 2 | 31 | 79 | 8.6% |
| 3 | 10 | 78 | 8.5% |
| 4 | 46 | 77 | 8.3% |
| 5 | 7 | 76 | 8.2% |
| 6 | 4 | 76 | 8.2% |
| 7 | 14 | 75 | 8.1% |
| 8 | 20 | 75 | 8.1% |
| 9 | 38 | 74 | 8.0% |
| 10 | 3 | 74 | 8.0% |
Ball 17's lead of 80 appearances versus the expected 66 represents 14 extra draws — a 21% deviation from expectation over seven years of play. Whether that gap is meaningful signal or expected noise is the subject of the independence test below.
Full frequency table — all 70 white balls ranked 1 to 70
The complete ranking covers every ball in the current pool. Figures are from the JackpotTeller database and update after each official draw.
| Rank | Ball | Draws | Rank | Ball | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | 80 | 36 | 21 | 66 |
| 2 | 31 | 79 | 37 | 26 | 65 |
| 3 | 10 | 78 | 38 | 30 | 65 |
| 4 | 46 | 77 | 39 | 34 | 65 |
| 5 | 7 | 76 | 40 | 40 | 65 |
| 6 | 4 | 76 | 41 | 16 | 65 |
| 7 | 14 | 75 | 42 | 6 | 64 |
| 8 | 20 | 75 | 43 | 27 | 64 |
| 9 | 38 | 74 | 44 | 42 | 64 |
| 10 | 3 | 74 | 45 | 50 | 64 |
| 11 | 22 | 73 | 46 | 54 | 64 |
| 12 | 56 | 73 | 47 | 60 | 63 |
| 13 | 62 | 72 | 48 | 12 | 63 |
| 14 | 1 | 72 | 49 | 23 | 63 |
| 15 | 44 | 72 | 50 | 36 | 62 |
| 16 | 58 | 71 | 51 | 37 | 62 |
| 17 | 28 | 71 | 52 | 39 | 62 |
| 18 | 49 | 71 | 53 | 45 | 62 |
| 19 | 35 | 70 | 54 | 68 | 61 |
| 20 | 11 | 70 | 55 | 9 | 61 |
| 21 | 66 | 70 | 56 | 18 | 60 |
| 22 | 53 | 69 | 57 | 24 | 60 |
| 23 | 13 | 69 | 58 | 59 | 59 |
| 24 | 8 | 69 | 59 | 61 | 59 |
| 25 | 25 | 68 | 60 | 51 | 59 |
| 26 | 32 | 68 | 61 | 52 | 58 |
| 27 | 47 | 68 | 62 | 63 | 57 |
| 28 | 19 | 67 | 63 | 55 | 57 |
| 29 | 5 | 67 | 64 | 43 | 56 |
| 30 | 33 | 67 | 65 | 67 | 56 |
| 31 | 57 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 55 |
| 32 | 64 | 66 | 67 | 48 | 55 |
| 33 | 69 | 66 | 68 | 70 | 54 |
| 34 | 15 | 66 | 69 | 29 | 53 |
| 35 | 2 | 66 | 70 | 41 | 52 |
Most commonly drawn Mega Ball — all 25 ranked
The Mega Ball is drawn from a separate pool of 25 numbers. With approximately 924 draws in the dataset, the expected count for each Mega Ball is about 37 appearances. The full ranking:
| Rank | Mega Ball | Appearances | % of Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | 44 | 4.8% |
| 2 | 9 | 43 | 4.7% |
| 3 | 11 | 42 | 4.5% |
| 4 | 15 | 42 | 4.5% |
| 5 | 19 | 41 | 4.4% |
| 6 | 10 | 40 | 4.3% |
| 7 | 3 | 40 | 4.3% |
| 8 | 7 | 39 | 4.2% |
| 9 | 24 | 39 | 4.2% |
| 10 | 17 | 38 | 4.1% |
| 11 | 1 | 38 | 4.1% |
| 12 | 13 | 38 | 4.1% |
| 13 | 4 | 37 | 4.0% |
| 14 | 20 | 37 | 4.0% |
| 15 | 25 | 37 | 4.0% |
| 16 | 8 | 37 | 4.0% |
| 17 | 21 | 36 | 3.9% |
| 18 | 16 | 36 | 3.9% |
| 19 | 5 | 35 | 3.8% |
| 20 | 18 | 33 | 3.6% |
| 21 | 12 | 33 | 3.6% |
| 22 | 2 | 32 | 3.5% |
| 23 | 23 | 31 | 3.4% |
| 24 | 6 | 30 | 3.2% |
| 25 | 14 | 28 | 3.0% |
What are the least common Mega Millions numbers?
Among white balls, 41 (52 draws), 29 (53 draws), and 70 (54 draws) have appeared least often since October 2017 — each running roughly 20–21% below the statistical average of 66. Among Mega Balls, 14 sits at 28 appearances, about 24% below its expected average of 37 — the largest single-ball deficit in the current dataset.
Pattern-hunting instinct tempts the conclusion that cold numbers are "overdue." That intuition is statistically unsound, for reasons covered in the next section.
Do the most common Mega Millions numbers actually predict anything?
Directly: no. Lottery draws are independent events. The machine does not track which ball last appeared, and nothing about a prior draw changes the probability distribution for the next one. This is statistical independence — the foundational property of any well-run lottery.
A chi-square goodness-of-fit test is the standard method for checking whether observed frequencies deviate from uniform expectation beyond what chance alone would produce. Applied to the white ball data: the range from 52 appearances (ball 41) to 80 appearances (ball 17) sounds wide. Over ~924 draws, though, the expected variance per ball is approximately 61 — meaning a spread from the low 50s to the low 80s is well within what a fair machine generates by chance alone. The white ball distribution yields χ²(69) = 84.3, p = 0.11 — comfortably above the 0.05 rejection threshold, meaning you cannot reject the null hypothesis that all balls are equally likely.
The same result holds for the Mega Ball pool. The 16-draw gap between the hottest Mega Ball (22, 44 draws) and the coldest (14, 28 draws) is consistent with random sampling from a pool of 25 equally weighted outcomes over 924 trials.
Bottom line: picking the most commonly drawn numbers does not change your odds. The probability of matching all five white balls plus the Mega Ball is 1 in 302,575,350 regardless of which numbers you choose. Frequency tables are descriptive records — useful for understanding what has happened, carrying no weight for what happens next.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common Mega Millions number?
In the current 5/70+1/25 format (draws since October 2017), white ball 17 has appeared most often — approximately 80 times across roughly 924 draws, an 8.7% appearance rate. Among Mega Balls drawn from the separate 1–25 pool, 22 leads with approximately 44 appearances over the same period.
What is the rarest Mega Millions number?
White ball 41 has the fewest appearances in the current format, drawn roughly 52 times across approximately 924 draws — about a 5.6% rate, or 21% below the statistical average of 66. Among Mega Balls, 14 is the least drawn number, appearing approximately 28 times against an expected average of 37.
Should you pick the most commonly drawn Mega Millions numbers?
No frequency-based strategy improves your odds. Each Mega Millions draw is a statistically independent event — past results carry no influence over future ones. The jackpot odds are fixed at 1 in 302,575,350 regardless of which numbers you select. Frequency data is accurate history; it is not a predictive tool.
How many total Mega Millions draws are in this dataset?
This analysis covers the current 5/70+1/25 matrix, which began October 31, 2017. From that date through the most recent draw in the JackpotTeller database, there are approximately 924 draws, held twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. The count updates automatically after each draw at the link below.
Explore the full Mega Millions draw dataset, filter by date range, and sort the complete frequency table at jackpotteller.com/w/data — signup is free.