--- description: Google has received an unprecedented number of searches for "lucky numbers" in the days before Wednesday night's Powerball drawing. title: More People Than Ever Are Googling The Term 'Lucky Numbers' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # More People Than Ever Are Googling 'Lucky Numbers' Amid Powerball Fever by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 14, 2016 3:45 AM CUT by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 14, 2016 3:45 AM CUT Google has [received](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=lucky%20numbers&geo=US&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5 "undefined") an unprecedented number of searches for the term “lucky numbers” in the days before Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing, the jackpot of which — $1.5 billion — is the largest lottery prize in history. In the hour before the announcement Wednesday night, Google Trends tweeted a link to a metric plotting the term’s search frequency from 2004 until present. > [](https://twitter.com/GoogleTrends/status/687472293535039488) A massive spike began in early January; prior to that, the frequency was unremarkable, barring a brief climb in March 2012, when Mega Millions jackpot was $656 million — the largest jackpot in history [at that point](http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/06/luxury/largest-lottery-jackpots/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4180098/google-lucky-numbers-powerball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4180098/google-lucky-numbers-powerball/"},"headline":"More People Than Ever Are Googling 'Lucky Numbers' Amid Powerball Fever","datePublished":"2016-01-14T03:45:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:07:15.747Z","description":"The spike in search frequency is unprecedented","url":"https://time.com/4180098/google-lucky-numbers-powerball/","keywords":["Tech","Internet","Google","Technology","Computers","Lottery","Powerball","jackpot"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4180098/google-lucky-numbers-powerball/","name":"More People Than Ever Are Googling 'Lucky Numbers' Amid Powerball Fever"}}]}] ```