$1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot: Here are the winning numbers for Friday’s drawing

The Mega Millions drawing took place on Friday evening for the nearly $1.3 billion jackpot prize. 

There was one winning ticket sold in Illinois, according to megamillions.com.

Earlier Friday, the lottery grand prize reached an estimated $1.28 billion with a $747.2 million cash option after continuing to climb from $1.02 billion on Wednesday

Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is the second-highest prize in the game’s history, as currently estimated. It also stands as the nation’s third-largest lottery prize ever. A $1.586 billion Powerball game in 2016 was split between the buyers of three winning tickets, and a $1.54 billion Mega Millions prize in 2018 went to the buyer of a single ticket.

The latest jackpot has grown so large because no one has matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner.

Here are the results from Friday’s drawing (good luck): 

Friday Mega Millions winning numbers (July 29)

The winning numbers from the Friday, July 29 drawing are 67, 45, 57, 36 and 13. The MegaBall was 14. The Megaplier was 2x.

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If there is no top winner, the next drawing will be on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 11 p.m. ET.

Mega Millions lottery drawing: Winners can remain anonymous in these states

Mega Millions drawing time

Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET.

How to play Mega Millions

Five white balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 70, and one gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 25. Players win if the numbers on one row of a ticket match the numbers of the balls drawn on that date.

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A person buys a Mega Millions lottery ticket at a store on July 29, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

Mega Millions tickets cost $2 per play. Players win the jackpot by matching all six numbers in a drawing. If no one wins the jackpot, the money is added to the jackpot for the next drawing.

For those lucky enough to become a Mega Millions jackpot winner, they get the choice of a cash option or an annual payout. The annuity option means getting an initial payment followed by 29 annual payments, and each payment is 5% larger than the previous one. For those that select the cash option, they receive a one-time, lump-sum payment that is equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool after taxes.

RELATED: Mega Millions jackpot: Should you take a lump sum or annual payouts?
 

Where to buy Mega Millions tickets

Mega Millions is played in 45 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

The official website has a map where individuals can click to go to their individual state’s lottery website. From there, you can find more information about tickets and retailers currently selling them. 

This story was reported from Cincinnati.