Which El Gordo numbers come up most?
Every ball drawn in the last 549 El Gordo draws — Sunday 3 January 2016 to Sunday 13 September 2026 — counted, ranked and mapped.
549 draws · Jan 2016 – Sept 2026 · 2,745 balls
These numbers describe the past. They cannot predict the next draw.
This describes the past, not the future. Every number has the same chance in every draw. Nothing here changes your odds.
Balls have no memory. In every draw each number has exactly the same chance — 1 in 54 of being the first ball out, whether it appeared last week or has not shown up for a year. Nothing on this page changes your odds. It is here because the patterns are interesting, and because knowing which combinations are popular can lower your chance of sharing a jackpot.
Draws analysed
549
2,745 balls drawn
Expected per number
50.8
If every ball were perfectly even
Drawn most
34 73
22.2 above expected
Drawn least
47 32
18.8 below expected
Every number, by how often it came up
Colour shows the gap from the expected 50.8 appearances.
Below expected · Expected · Above
−10.2 +10.2
below · expected 50.8 · above
Number 34
Drawn 73 of 549 draws
22.2 above expected
Last out withheld
Longest gap 26 draws
A spread like this is exactly what pure chance produces. Formally: χ² = 72.5 on 53 degrees of freedom, p = 0.04 — no evidence that any ball is favoured. How we test for bias →
Drawn most often
Appearances in 549 draws
Drawn least often
Appearances in 549 draws
Longest droughts on record
The longest run of draws each number has sat out. It never made them "due".
Turn up together most
Pairs appearing in the same draw
The one statistic that can actually help you
Roughly a third of players choose numbers from 1–31 because they are using birthdays, and thousands of tickets carry 1-2-3-4-5-6 every week. Picking outside those patterns will not make you more likely to win — but if you do win, you are less likely to be sharing the jackpot with a hundred other people.
Across 549 draws under the current matrix, each number has come up about 51 times.
The spread is slightly further from even than chance usually produces. With this many numbers tested, that happens by coincidence often enough that it is not evidence of anything.
Most and least often drawn
The difference between the top and the bottom of this list is what chance produces on a sample this size. Neither group is more likely next time.
Drawn most
- 34 73 times
- 6 66 times
- 2 65 times
- 51 65 times
- 37 63 times
- 3 62 times
Drawn least
- 47 32 times
- 17 38 times
- 1 40 times
- 36 40 times
- 14 41 times
- 4 42 times
The longest a number has gone missing
Number 43 once went 88 draws without appearing — the record for this game in our archive. It was last drawn 18 draws ago.
Those are two different questions and they are constantly confused. A record drought is the longest gap a number has ever had. It says nothing about now, and a number that has been missing a long time is not more likely to appear.
Every number
| Number | Times drawn | Expected | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 | 50.8 | -10.8 |
| 2 | 65 | 50.8 | +14.2 |
| 3 | 62 | 50.8 | +11.2 |
| 4 | 42 | 50.8 | -8.8 |
| 5 | 52 | 50.8 | +1.2 |
| 6 | 66 | 50.8 | +15.2 |
| 7 | 50 | 50.8 | -0.8 |
| 8 | 61 | 50.8 | +10.2 |
| 9 | 58 | 50.8 | +7.2 |
| 10 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 11 | 62 | 50.8 | +11.2 |
| 12 | 54 | 50.8 | +3.2 |
| 13 | 62 | 50.8 | +11.2 |
| 14 | 41 | 50.8 | -9.8 |
| 15 | 51 | 50.8 | +0.2 |
| 16 | 43 | 50.8 | -7.8 |
| 17 | 38 | 50.8 | -12.8 |
| 18 | 49 | 50.8 | -1.8 |
| 19 | 60 | 50.8 | +9.2 |
| 20 | 44 | 50.8 | -6.8 |
| 21 | 47 | 50.8 | -3.8 |
| 22 | 49 | 50.8 | -1.8 |
| 23 | 44 | 50.8 | -6.8 |
| 24 | 59 | 50.8 | +8.2 |
| 25 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 26 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 27 | 57 | 50.8 | +6.2 |
| 28 | 50 | 50.8 | -0.8 |
| 29 | 43 | 50.8 | -7.8 |
| 30 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 31 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 32 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 33 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 34 | 73 | 50.8 | +22.2 |
| 35 | 50 | 50.8 | -0.8 |
| 36 | 40 | 50.8 | -10.8 |
| 37 | 63 | 50.8 | +12.2 |
| 38 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 39 | 53 | 50.8 | +2.2 |
| 40 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 41 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 42 | 58 | 50.8 | +7.2 |
| 43 | 43 | 50.8 | -7.8 |
| 44 | 44 | 50.8 | -6.8 |
| 45 | 51 | 50.8 | +0.2 |
| 46 | 45 | 50.8 | -5.8 |
| 47 | 32 | 50.8 | -18.8 |
| 48 | 52 | 50.8 | +1.2 |
| 49 | 48 | 50.8 | -2.8 |
| 50 | 60 | 50.8 | +9.2 |
| 51 | 65 | 50.8 | +14.2 |
| 52 | 49 | 50.8 | -1.8 |
| 53 | 54 | 50.8 | +3.2 |
| 54 | 51 | 50.8 | +0.2 |
How often a line looks a certain way
Frequency is one question about a draw. Shape is another, and it is the one people act on — the numbers they cross out because a line "looks wrong". These come from the matrix rather than from counting, so they are exact.
| Shape | Chance | In our archive |
|---|---|---|
| contains two consecutive numbers | about 33% | 174 of 549 draws |
| every number odd | 1 in 39 | too few draws to be worth comparing |
| every number even | 1 in 39 | too few draws to be worth comparing |
| contains three in a row | 1 in 50 | too few draws to be worth comparing |
None of it makes a line more or less likely to be drawn. Every set of 5 numbers has exactly the same chance — what the record shows about the shapes people avoid works through the counting.
What none of this can tell you
Which numbers will come up next. A draw has no memory: the balls do not know what happened last week, and the chance of any particular line is fixed by the matrix at 1 in 31,625,100 whatever has gone before.
Counting past draws is genuinely interesting and it is a record of what happened. It is not a forecast, and anyone selling you one is selling you a coin they have already flipped.
Last updated Sunday 20 September 2026, after the draw on Sunday 13 September 2026.
El Gordo hot and cold numbers · Generate El Gordo numbers · See every draw we hold
Why the counting works the way it does: why hot and cold lists do not work · how the odds are calculated · what happens when a game changes its matrix