Number 26

In Mega Millions under the 5/70 + 1/24 · since Apr 2025 rules — 158 draws, 5 from 1–70.

12times drawn · chance expected 11 +0.22σ

1draws waiting · a wait this long: >99% for any number

12.3average wait between appearances · chance says 14.0

31longest completed wait · 72% chance of one at least that long

26 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 12 times in 158 draws against 11.3 expected, +0.22σ. Each draw is independent: after 1 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 26, draw by draw

Drawn 12 times in 158 draws · average wait 12.3 draws · longest completed wait 31 · waiting 1 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 small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest3 · chance 1.9
2nd smallest4 · chance 4.6
3rd smallest4 · chance 3.9
4th smallest1 · chance 1.4
5th smallest0 · chance 0.2

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.7 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

13 17 34 42 43 50

Never drawn alongside 32 of the other 69 numbers; chance expects about 34 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 70. 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
2026-10-06	4	1st	26 32 42 51 54
2026-09-22	5	3rd	7 13 26 37 68
2026-09-04	10	2nd	6 26 34 59 61
2026-07-31	9	3rd	4 18 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 5/70 tonight whatever it did last week.