Massachusetts The Numbers Game · positional

Massachusetts The Numbers Game — positional

Four digits, 0–9, drawn by the Massachusetts Lottery ("The Numbers Game") since April 1976 — the longest-running series on the site. Evening-only for its first three decades, with a Midday draw added later. Massachusetts runs no 3-digit game. Outcome space: 10,000 combinations.

24,428 draws1976-04-10 → 2026-10-11midday: 6,699evening: 17,729

Reading this honestly

Each cell shows how often a digit landed in a particular slot. If the draws are fair, every slot should look like 0–9 picked from a hat — about 10% each, with sample noise. Any heat pattern you can see by eye is almost certainly within that noise band.

showing 17,729 draws (evening)

Digit-by-position heatmap

Which digit shows up where

How often each digit 0–9 landed in each position
pos / digit	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
P1	1791 10.1%	1752 9.9%	1842 10.4%	1771 10.0%	1782 10.1%	1726 9.7%	1790 10.1%	1830 10.3%	1739 9.8%	1706 9.6%
P2	1705 9.6%	1712 9.7%	1819 10.3%	1742 9.8%	1823 10.3%	1785 10.1%	1761 9.9%	1784 10.1%	1777 10.0%	1821 10.3%
P3	1780 10.0%	1785 10.1%	1763 9.9%	1795 10.1%	1839 10.4%	1749 9.9%	1774 10.0%	1784 10.1%	1786 10.1%	1674 9.4%
P4	1750 9.9%	1749 9.9%	1766 10.0%	1833 10.3%	1812 10.2%	1736 9.8%	1772 10.0%	1790 10.1%	1766 10.0%	1755 9.9%

coolerwarmer

Sum distribution

All digits added together (0–36)

Middling sums are commonest simply because more digit combinations produce them.

Draw count for each possible digit sum
0	0
1	5
2	22
3	36
4	48
5	99
6	143
7	223
8	271
9	386
10	492
11	664
12	703
13	849
14	1,024
15	1,019
16	1,105
17	1,224
18	1,192
19	1,220
20	1,116
21	1,011
22	966
23	807
24	747
25	598
26	465
27	417
28	318
29	204
30	133
31	106
32	48
33	38
34	23
35	7
36	0

Draw shapes

Repeats inside one draw

All distinct9,000 · 50.8%

Has a double8,064 · 45.5%

Has a triple657 · 3.7%

Has a quad8 · 0.0%

Digital root distribution

Sum reduced to a single digit (0–9)

Digital root keeps adding digits until one is left. Reference under uniform digits ≈ 11.1% per class for 1–9, lower for 0.

root = 00 · 0.0%

root = 12,035 · 11.5%

root = 22,006 · 11.3%

root = 31,883 · 10.6%

root = 41,969 · 11.1%

root = 51,978 · 11.2%

root = 61,947 · 11.0%

root = 71,949 · 11.0%

root = 81,967 · 11.1%

root = 91,995 · 11.3%

Box-type breakdown

Pick 4 box types

Observed share vs the theoretical share under uniform random digits.

no-match50.8% · expected 50.4%

single-double42.9% · expected 43.2%

double-double2.6% · expected 2.7%

triple3.7% · expected 3.6%

quad0.0% · expected 0.1%