In Powerball under the 5/59 + 1/39 · Jan 2009 – Jan 2012 rules — 316 draws, 5 from 1–59 (an earlier era).
47times drawn · chance expected 27 +4.08σ
11draws waiting · a wait this long: 41% for any number
6.5average wait between appearances · chance says 11.8
26longest completed wait · >99% chance of one at least that long
20 deviates beyond what chance explains for a pool of 59
Drawn 47 times in 316 draws against 26.8 expected, +4.08σ. It passes even the threshold tightened for testing every number at once. Read the draw-by-draw history below before reading anything into it — and it still says nothing about the next draw.
20
Number 20, draw by draw
Drawn 47 times in 316 draws · average wait 6.5 draws · longest completed wait 26 · waiting 11 draws now
a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap
Where it lands in a sorted draw
Sort a draw and 20 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.
Never drawn alongside 2 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 2 such strangers by now. Every pair →
How many people play it
Under the crowd model, 20 is picked about 1.28× as often as an indifferent choice — 13th most popular of 59. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.
Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 20 is drawn with probability 5/59 tonight whatever it did last week.