The EuroMillions lottery has set a new record with an enormous £213 million jackpot won by an Irish player, marking the largest prize ever awarded to a single ticket. This staggering win surpasses previous records, including a £195.7 million prize won in July 2022 and a £184 million jackpot claimed in May of the same year by Joe and Jess Thwaite from Gloucester.
Joe recalls the surreal moment of discovering his win: “Generally my luck is pretty terrible, to be honest. I saw how much I had won and didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go back to sleep and didn’t want to wake Jess up, so I just lay there for what felt like forever. I even started looking at properties without any budget limits—a complete novelty!”
Across Europe, the largest single ticket win came in Italy at £317 million, but this sum was split among 90 winners, each taking home roughly £16 million.
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The Irish National Lottery confirmed Tuesday’s jackpot as the “biggest ever EuroMillions” won in Ireland, with the winner’s location to be announced soon. Cian Murphy, CEO of the Irish National Lottery, urged players to check their tickets carefully: “If you’re the winner, sign the back of your ticket, keep it safe, and contact National Lottery HQ for guidance through the claims process.”
The winning numbers from Tuesday’s draw were 13, 22, 23, 44, and 49, alongside lucky stars 3 and 5. Interestingly, 22—drawn only 66 times—is among the least frequently picked numbers, while 20 remains the luckiest number in EuroMillions history, drawn 111 times since 2016. The second luckiest number is 21, drawn 108 times.
Among the lucky stars, the number 3 stands out, having been drawn 180 times—the highest in its range of 1 to 12—while regular numbers range from 1 to 50.
Some numbers, however, have been notably absent. Number 26 hasn’t been drawn in 120 days, making it the most overdue, followed by number 11, absent for 117 days. Over the past nine years, the UK has produced the most EuroMillions winners, with 46 out of 173 winning tickets issued there.
With this latest jackpot, the victorious Irish player becomes the ninth individual in Ireland to win the EuroMillions since September 2016. In total, twenty Irish players have won the jackpot since the game’s inception in 2004.