The número adicional is not a seventh number you can pick. It comes out of the same urn after the six naturales and only decides which side of a prize category your ticket lands on. Nothing you write on the slip changes your chance of catching it, and it plays no part at all in the first-place bolsa.
The game at a glance
6 of 56 + adicional
Wed · Fri · Sun
Mexico
1 in 32,468,436
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
Bonus Ball
Melate draws seven spheres from the same urn of 56. The first six are the números naturales, and the seventh is the número adicional, which no player picks and which only splits prize categories, so five naturales plus the adicional pays a higher place than five naturales alone. The same split applies at four, three and two.
18+
Must be 18+ to buy a Melate ticket in Mexico.
Melate, in brief
Melate is Mexico's main number draw, run by Lotería Nacional para la Asistencia Pública, the federal body that absorbed Pronósticos para la Asistencia Pública in the 2020 merger. A standard bet marks six numbers from 1 to 56, and the slip lets you extend that to as many as ten numbers, which covers every six-number combination those selections produce and is priced accordingly.
Draws are held Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 21:00. Seven spheres come out of the urn, six naturales and one adicional. The first-place bolsa starts at a guaranteed 30 million pesos and accumulates draw after draw until somebody matches all six naturales. Places one through five are variable and depend on sales and the number of winners, while places six through nine pay set amounts.
The same six numbers can be entered into two companion draws on the same night. Revancha uses its own urn of 56 and carries a guaranteed 20 million peso bolsa. Revanchita does the same with a 10 million peso floor. Neither draws an adicional, and each costs extra, so a full Melate ticket is really three separate chances at three separate pots with one set of numbers.
Prize tiers
6 naturalesJackpot
First place, the accumulated bolsa, guaranteed to start at 30 million pesos
5 naturales + adicional
Second place, a variable share of the prize fund set by sales and the number of winners
5 naturales
Third place, variable and smaller than the tier above it
4 naturales + adicional
Fourth place, a variable mid-table amount
4 naturales
Fifth place, the last of the variable categories
3 naturales + adicional
Sixth place, a small fixed amount published at 161.29 pesos
3 naturales
Seventh place, a fixed amount published at 43.01 pesos
2 naturales + adicional
Eighth place, a fixed amount published at 32.25 pesos
2 naturales
Ninth place, the minimum fixed amount, published at 26.88 pesos
Where Melate came from
From 39 numbers in 1984
Melate went on sale in August 1984 as the first product of Pronósticos para la Asistencia Pública, and the original game asked for six numbers out of 39. That gave about 3.3 million combinations, so jackpots were hit often and stayed small by later standards. The 39-number format survived for nearly a decade before the operator started stretching the pool.
Four widenings in fifteen years
The pool moved to 44 numbers with draw 555 in March 1993, to 47 in October 2002, to 51 in November 2005, and finally to 56 with draw 2088 on 9 December 2007. Each step made the first prize harder to reach and let the bolsa run longer. The last change also set the guaranteed minimum at 30 million pesos, where it still sits.
Revancha and Revanchita
Revancha joined the ticket on 6 August 1997, at Melate draw 1009, giving the same six numbers a second draw on the same night. Revanchita followed in 2010. The largest first-place prize in Melate's history came on 4 August 2013, when a single ticket bought in Jalisco took roughly 639.7 million pesos. That record has stood ever since.
Picking numbers, honestly
Mexican newspapers and apps publish tables of números atrasados, the ones that have not appeared for a while. A ball being absent for fifty draws does not make it more likely on the fifty-first. Melate has run since 1984 and every draw starts clean, with each of the 32,468,436 combinations equally likely.
Entering Revancha and Revanchita does not improve your Melate odds. They are separate draws from separate urns, so your six numbers get three independent shots at three different pots rather than one better shot at the main one. Each entry costs extra and each carries its own 1 in 32,468,436 chance.
Melate — frequently asked
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 21:00 Mexico City time.
A seventh sphere drawn from the same urn of 56, after the six naturales. Players never choose it. It splits four of the prize categories, so five naturales with the adicional pays second place and five without pays third.
Nine. First place needs all six naturales. Second through fifth cover five and four naturales with and without the adicional, and are variable amounts set by sales and winner counts. Sixth through ninth cover three and two naturales, and pay published fixed sums.
Retro is a separate game that revived the original 6 from 39 format Melate used between 1984 and 1993. Fewer balls means shorter odds and a smaller guaranteed pot. The two have their own tickets and their own prize funds.
Official tickets are sold at Lotería Nacional agencies and authorised outlets inside Mexico, and buyers must be 18 or over. Sites that resell entries internationally are not the operator, so any prize is settled through them rather than through Lotería Nacional directly.