The $847 Million Ticket Bought at a Supermarket Machine
Published November 9, 2026
A single Powerball ticket sold at a Wegmans in Montvale, New Jersey, matched all six numbers in the November 4, 2026 drawing to win an $847 million jackpot — the ninth-largest in Powerball history and the biggest ever won in the state. The winner can take the $847 million annuity over 29 years or a $363.1 million lump sum, and under New Jersey law may remain completely anonymous.
On Wednesday night, November 4, 2026, a single Powerball ticket sold in New Jersey matched all six numbers and won an $847 million jackpot — the ninth-largest prize in the game's history and the second-largest Powerball jackpot of 2026. The winning numbers were 15, 34, 41, 53 and 56, with a red Powerball of 21 and a Power Play multiplier of 2. The winner can take the $847 million as an annuity paid over 29 years, or a lump sum of $363.1 million in cash, both before taxes.
The ticket was sold at the Wegmans supermarket at 100 Farm View in Montvale, Bergen County, bought at one of the store's self-service lottery machines on Tuesday morning, according to the store manager. It ended a drought: nobody had hit the Powerball jackpot since August 12, when a ticket sold in Illinois won $1.04 billion, and the game had gone 35 straight drawings without a grand-prize winner. The jackpot had been climbing for months and was roughly a week away from crossing the billion-dollar mark when the New Jersey ticket stopped it.
It is the 13th time a Powerball jackpot has been won in New Jersey, and the biggest ever won in the state — bigger even than the $533 million Mega Millions prize won by Richard Wahl of Vernon in 2018. A ticket sold in Neptune, New Jersey, also won a $1.128 billion Mega Millions jackpot in March 2024, so the Garden State has now produced three of the largest lottery wins in American history in the space of two and a half years.
As of the morning after the drawing, nobody had come forward to claim the prize, and the public may never learn who holds it. New Jersey is one of the states that allows lottery winners to remain completely anonymous, keeping their names out of the public record. Whoever holds the ticket has one year from the drawing date — until November 4, 2027 — to claim it, and the first decision is the one every jackpot winner faces: the annuity or the lump sum.
The win instantly reset the game for everyone else. With the jackpot claimed, Powerball started over at $20 million for the Saturday, November 7 drawing, and the spotlight shifted to Mega Millions, whose jackpot had crossed $500 million — $505 million, with a $213.3 million cash option, for the Friday drawing. It was the third time in 2026 that the Mega Millions jackpot had passed $500 million, and only three Mega Millions jackpots had been won in the first ten months of the year, the most recent in Florida on July 28 for $803 million.
An $847 million jackpot is a windfall almost nobody can plan for, and that is the point of the story. The ticket cost two dollars at a supermarket self-service machine on a Tuesday morning, and the difference between that ticket and the millions of others sold for the same drawing is nothing but the numbers on it. The lesson is the one every jackpot story carries, and the one worth repeating: a lump sum is always smaller than the headline, the annuity is a 29-year commitment, and the smartest first move after a win this size is not a purchase — it is a pause, a lawyer, and a plan made before anyone knows your name.
The lesson: A lump sum is always smaller than the headline — and the smartest first move after a win this size is a pause, a lawyer, and a plan.
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