Will An Aucklander Win This Weekend’s $10 Million Must Be Won?

Auckland has been in a bit of a dry spell when it comes to winning big Powerball prizes, but that could change with this Saturday’s $10 million Must Be Won draw.

The last time an Auckland winner took out a Powerball prize was on Christmas Day 2024.

In the eight months since then, the balls have fallen in favour of those outside of Auckland, with multiple winners in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Despite the lack of results in Auckland, the North Island has still claimed eight of this year’s 14 Powerball wins, while the South Island has taken six.

“With around a third of Aotearoa’s population living in Auckland, it’s quite an anomaly not to see any Powerball winners from the region this year,” says Will Hine, Head of Corporate Communications.

“This is the driest spell Auckland has had without winning a Powerball prize at least in the past six years.

“Maybe this weekend is when the tide turns.”

Hine says customers – whether from Auckland or elsewhere in the country – shouldn’t read too much into the trend.

“While it’s easy to feel like some regions might be luckier than others, actually each line on every Powerball ticket has an equal chance of winning.”

Hine says it hasn’t been all bad news for players in Auckland. “While Aucklanders may have missed out on becoming multimillionaires with Powerball, nine of them have become millionaires in 2025 through Lotto and Strike.”

The largest Powerball jackpot this year was back in June. The $30 million jackpot was split by two lucky players across the islands – a man from Wellington and a woman from Invercargill.

Meanwhile, the biggest individual Powerball win of 2025 so far was $23.3 million in April. The winners were based in the Upper North Island – but we promise – that’s not code for Auckland.

The weekend’s $10 million Powerball Must Be Won draw has been announced ahead of a major technology change later this month at the lottery.

As the countdown begins to Saturday night, will it finally be an Aucklander’s turn to share in the spoils?

One thing’s for sure – wherever you are in the country, someone has to win.

Notes:

• Anyone wanting to buy a ticket should get in early and avoid the rush. Lotto NZ expects stores to be busy from mid-afternoon on Saturday, and lots of people will also be going online to grab their ticket in the hour before sales close at 7.30pm.
• Some larger stores may be down to one terminal instead of the usual two terminals due to the technology transformation, meaning customers may need to queue. Lotto NZ thanks customers for their patience.
• We always encourage people, if they want to buy a ticket, to spend only a little and to only spend what they can afford to from their entertainment budget.
• In a Must Be Won draw, if there are no Powerball First Division winners, the jackpot rolls down to the next Powerball division with winners and is split equally between them.

2025 Powerball winner statistics:

• Seven won on MyLotto, and seven in-store
• Eight winners on the North Island, and six on the South Island
• Ten bought ‘dip’ tickets, and four picked their own numbers
• All of them said they were going to help family.

Powerball wins in 2025 so far:

A History of Must Be Won draws

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