Lotto NZ is expecting to sell more than 2 million tickets for tonight's must-win $50 million Powerball draw.
The website crashed on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning after the jackpot was announced.
High traffic is expected again from around 5pm tonight, potentially overloading the MyLotto site again, Lotto warns.
"Saturdays are typically our biggest day for ticket sales, as Kiwis often wait until the day of the draw to buy their tickets," Lotto's Marie Winfield says.
"I can't stress enough how important it is to buy your ticket early if you want to be in to win."
Sales for this week's draw are likely to be complicated by the Alert Level 3 lockdown in Auckland, and Ms Winfield says around half of the 1.6 million tickets sold so far were sold online.
She's expecting more than 2 million tickets to be sold before the draw.
The must-win draw means if no one gets all the Lotto numbers and the Powerball, the prize will be split amongst the winners of the next-highest division.
The largest single win in Lotto's history was in November 26, when someone won more than $44 million.
Earlier this year, another $50 million must-win draw was split between two winners in Auckland, winning more than $25 million each.
The draw will be aired on TVNZ1 at 8pm.
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