Number 26

In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2026 rules — 140 draws, 5 from 1–49.

16times drawn · chance expected 14 +0.48σ

10draws waiting · a wait this long: 38% for any number

7.7average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

30longest completed wait · 49% chance of one at least that long

26 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 16 times in 140 draws against 14.3 expected, +0.48σ. Each draw is independent: after 10 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 26, draw by draw

Drawn 16 times in 140 draws · average wait 7.7 draws · longest completed wait 30 · waiting 10 draws now

a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap

Where it lands in a sorted draw

Sort a draw and 26 has a favourite seat — chance gives a large number the high positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest0 · chance 0.7
2nd smallest4 · chance 3.6
3rd smallest6 · chance 6.2
4th smallest6 · chance 4.3
5th smallest0 · chance 1.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.3 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

21 36 1 6 7 10

Never drawn alongside 14 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 13 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 26 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th most popular of 49. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 26 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-10-02	12	3rd	6 17 26 35 47
2026-09-20	2	4th	1 2 10 26 27
2026-09-18	2	2nd	20 26 32 44 47
2026-09-16	2	2nd	21 26

What this cannot tell you

Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 26 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.