Lottery officials say Tuesday's drawing could break 2012's $656million record to become the largest jackpot in world history.
No ticket matched the six numbers needed to win Friday's $425 million prize. The jackpot was raised Saturday to $585 million for Tuesday's drawing - the fourth largest in U.S. history.
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Paula Otto, executive director of the Virginia Lottery and Mega Millions' lead director, told the Associated Press that sales were up by as much as 20 percent in states that reported their weekend numbers.
Sales were expected to spike on Tuesday, the day of the drawing.
'I think we'll be very close to the record, and maybe even surpass it,' Otto said.
'The challenging part in predicting is that so many of the sales happening on the day of the drawing.
But lotto players are procrastinators. They tend to buy on the day of the draw.'
As of Friday, players had bought enough tickets to cover roughly half of the 259 million possible number combinations, Otto said.
The March 30, 2012 Mega Millions jackpot was the largest lottery payout in world history - $656million. Three winners split $474million cash.
In May, grandmother Gloria McKenzie became the biggest single lottery winner ever when she alone won a $590.5million Powerball jackpot in Zephyrhills, Florida.
She took home an estimated $266million lump sum after taxes.
The next Mega Millions drawing will be 11pm EST on Tuesday.
Players must buy tickets by 10.45pm EST Tuesday to be eligible for the drawing.
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