Lotto: The luckiest Powerball number as jackpot spikes to 'must-win ...

You may think Lotto's Powerball numbers get drawn an equal number of times since every draw is completely random, but it turns out some numbers win more often than others.

According to Lotto's latest draw frequency data, the 'luckiest' Powerball number is 2.

It has been drawn 197 times out of nearly 1700 Powerball draws since February 2001.

Number 1 follows closely behind, drawn a total of 195 times.

The 'unluckiest' Powerball numbers are 9 and 10, which have each been drawn just 121 times.

When it comes to regular Lotto balls, the most common is 1 (drawn 449 times), while the least common is 14 (drawn 386 times).

The five most-drawn balls, in order, are: 1, 19, 23, 7, and 22.

Powerball's astonishing $43 million jackpot was not won on Wednesday, so it rolled over to Saturday and the new $50m prize now must be won.

If no single player wins, the prize will be split among multiple players.

A whopping 1.7 million tickets were sold for Wednesday night's draw, with more than half sold online.

Lotto encourages players to get their tickets early, including those using the app or website, because that too can get busy.

Lucy Fullarton, Lotto NZ's head of communications, said more people buy tickets when it's a must-be-won draw.

"We would like to remind people that it only takes one ticket to be in to win and we’re encouraging all players not to spend more than they can afford," she said.

According to Lotto's Powerball policy, if it reaches the limit of $50 million, or the number of games hits 52-in-a-row without any winners, then the jackpot must be won on the next draw.

The maximum $50m prize has been won twice before - both times in 2020.