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The Most Common Powerball Numbers of 2019

The Most Common Powerball Numbers of 2019

The New Year has arrived and 2019 is done and dusted, so it’s time to take a look at some of last year’s most interesting Powerball statistics. Delve into the data to find out what the hottest numbers of the year were, which draws had the biggest Power Plays, and more. 


Most Common Powerball Numbers 

There were 104 Powerball draws in 2019. Over the course of those draws 520 main numbers were drawn and the most commonly drawn number was 14, which appeared 14 times. Behind that, number 6 was drawn on 13 separate occasions and the numbers 32 and 66 were each drawn 12 times.

Of the Powerball numbers, 21 was the most commonly drawn in 2019, having appeared eight times, while number 3 appeared in seven draws. The table below shows the 10 most common numbers to have appeared in Powerball draws in 2019:

Number 14 6 32 66 5 8 23 53 59 35
Frequency 14 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 10

Another popular statistic is the most common pair of numbers – the two numbers that have appeared the most in the same draw. The most common pair of 2019 was 12 and 21, which appeared in four separate draws last year. There were 15 other pairs that appeared together on three separate occasions.

Least Common Powerball Numbers

On the opposite end of the scale are the least commonly drawn numbers. These were the numbers that appeared in the fewest draws in 2019. There were three numbers at the top (or bottom) of the last year’s list: 33, 40, and 58 each only appeared in three out of 104 draws. Number 11 only appeared four times, and then there were six other numbers that were drawn on five occasions. The table below lists all the least common numbers of 2019:

Number 33 40 58 11 9 13 31 54 55 62
Frequency 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 5

When it comes to overdue numbers – those that haven’t been drawn for the longest amount of time – there was one clear frontrunner in 2019. Number 49 wasn’t drawn after Saturday June 15th, making it the most overdue number by far. Considering that each number should appear on average every seven weeks (see below), six months is a long time for one to go without being drawn. 

With the New Year came new luck, however: number 49 was one of the winning numbers in the very first draw of 2020, which took place on January 1st.

Power Play Statistics 2019

It’s also worth taking a look at the Power Play statistics from 2019, starting with how many times each multiplier was selected. The table below shows how many times each of the five different Power Play numbers was selected in a draw, alongside the odds of each one appearing:

Power Play Appearances Frequency Odds*
x2 54 1.89 1 in 1.79
x3 35 2.91 1 in 3.31
x4 7 14.57 1 in 14.33
x5 6 17 1 in 21.5
x10 2 33.5 1 in 43

Stated odds are when the 10x Power Play is available – odds differ slightly when it is not

Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that the 10x Power Play is only available when the Powerball jackpot is $150 million or less, so the fact that it appeared just twice in 2019 is not surprising. 

Out of the 104 Powerball draws last year the jackpot stood at $150 million or less in 67 of them, so just under two-thirds of the time. When it is available, the odds of the 10x Power Play being selected are 1 in 43, so over 67 draws the odds state it would appear 1.56 times. Round to the nearest whole number and you’ll see that last year’s stats were right in line with the odds.

As the table also shows, the other Power Plays also appeared roughly the number of times they should have according to the odds. It was, in fact, a good year for Power Play as the 5x multiplier appeared once every 17 draws, which is better than the 1 in 21 odds of it being selected.

These numbers provided a real boost for some Powerball players. The first time the 10x Power Play was selected in 2019, for example, was on August 28th and one lucky winner from Arizona saw their prize money boosted from $50,000 to $500,000. In the same draw more than 55,000 players won $40 just for matching the Powerball.

Why Are Some Numbers Drawn More (Or Less) Than Others?

Each Powerball draw is a unique, random event in which every number has an equal chance of being selected. The results of previous drawings have no bearing on future ones. That being the case, probability states that on average each number should appear roughly once in every 14 draws. 

However, their randomness means that many thousands of draws would need to take place before this even begins to balance out and until then some numbers will be drawn more or less frequently than probability states they should be. You’ll see some numbers go on ‘hot’ streaks – in other words they’ll be drawn more frequently – and some will go on ‘cold’ streaks, where they won’t be drawn as often.  

Even when you look at the statistics from all the draws that have taken place in Powerball’s history – and there have been around 3,000 of them already – you can see this variance in action. The frequencies are a lot more even but the most common number has still been drawn 50 more times than the least common.

Note: this takes into account only the numbers 1 to 45, which are the ones that have been in play since Powerball launched in 1992. Other numbers have been drawn less frequently but they were also introduced to the game at later dates.



Page Last Updated: 1/3/2020 10:22:29 AM ET