At the counter of a corner store, the Melate play slip prints a grid of 56 numbers in tight rows, and below it, three nearly identical columns: one for Melate, one for Revancha, one for Revanchita. Someone filling out their first ticket pauses right there, pen hovering, with a reasonable question: do I mark six numbers in each column? Eighteen numbers total? The answer is simpler than that form suggests, and getting it right saves confusion at the counter: you mark six numbers once, from 1 to 56, and those same six are the ones that enter — if you choose to activate them — into all three of that night's draws.
The short answer: six numbers, chosen from a total of 56
How many numbers Melate has can be answered in one line: the player picks six distinct numbers from a range of 1 to 56. There's no fine print or hidden variant in that part — it's always six, never five or seven, whether you mark them by hand or request a quick pick and let the system choose for you. That six-number combination is your complete jackpot entry: to win it, the six numbers drawn have to match, exactly, the six you wrote down, regardless of the order they come out in.
The "56" is the size of the pool, not a quantity you decide — it's the upper limit of the available range. When someone asks "how many numbers does Melate have," they may actually be asking two different things: how many do I pick, or how many can I pick from — and both answers live in the same phrase: six out of fifty-six. For the complete picture of how the game is played, before the details below, see our guide on how to play Melate.
The seventh number you don't choose: the adicional
The count doesn't stop there. Every Melate draw — Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, at around 9:00 PM — also pulls a seventh number from that same pool of 56: the adicional. Unlike the six main numbers, you don't choose the adicional; the machine draws it independently, and it plays no role in determining the jackpot. Its function is different: it comes into play for lower-tier prizes, built from partial matches combined with that extra number.
So if the question is how many numbers appear as winners on any given draw night, the correct answer is seven: the six main numbers plus the adicional. But if the question is how many numbers you have to match for the jackpot, the answer is still six. Mixing up those two questions is, probably, the most common source of the confusion behind this search.
Revancha and Revanchita don't ask for new numbers
Back to the counter scene. Revancha and Revanchita are two optional draws held the same night as Melate, each with its own prize pool and its own prize tiers, but neither has its own set of number boxes — they use exactly the same six-number combination you already marked for Melate. You don't pick something different for each column on the slip; you decide whether to activate each mode, and if you do, your same six numbers enter that draw too. Neither one has its own adicional either — only Melate draws that number.
Put differently: no matter how many columns the paper has, the amount of numbers you actually decide on stays at six. What changes between modes is how many times that same combination gets evaluated, not how many numbers you need to think about. For the full breakdown of what separates one mode from the other — pools, prizes, the cost of activating them — see our guide on the difference between Revancha and Revanchita.
56 is not the same as 6 (or as 32 million)
It's worth cleanly separating the three figures that circle this search, because in practice people blend them constantly:
- 6 is how many numbers you choose.
- 56 is the range you choose them from, and also the size of the pool the adicional is drawn from.
- 32,468,436 is how many distinct six-number combinations exist within that range of 56 — the full universe of possible tickets, and therefore the exact probability of hitting the jackpot with a single ticket.
That last figure isn't the subject of this article, but if you want the step-by-step math and what that scale actually looks like in real terms, we cover it in full in how many combinations Melate has. For our purposes here, the distinction is enough: "how many numbers does Melate have" almost always refers to 6 or to 56, not to the millions of combinations those two figures generate together.
The other Melate: Retro changes the total to 39
If you know Melate Retro — the Tuesday and Saturday draw — the question gets a little more layered, because the total changes there. Retro also asks the player to pick six numbers, but the range is shorter: 1 to 39, not 56. And just like classic Melate, it draws a seventh, adicional number from that same 39-number pool for the lower prize tiers. The structure is identical — six chosen numbers plus one adicional — but the universe of available numbers is different, and that's what makes Retro's jackpot odds noticeably better than classic Melate's. If you're curious why Pronósticos keeps two versions of the same game with different ranges, we explain it in what Melate Retro is and why it exists.
Six is fixed: the only thing you can multiply is the ticket
One last common mix-up: assuming that buying more tickets means choosing more numbers per ticket. It doesn't. Every Melate ticket still requires exactly six numbers, no exceptions — there's no version where you mark seven or eight to "cover more ground" within a single play. What you can do is buy additional tickets, each with its own six-number combination, and that does multiply how many of the 32 million possible combinations you're covering. It's the difference between changing the rules of the game — which you can't do — and changing how many times you play within those rules — which is entirely up to you. Playing in a group is a common way to cover more combinations without any one person footing the whole bill; we explain it in playing Melate in a group.
Frequently asked questions
How many numbers does Melate have in total, counting the ones I don't pick?
Counting the six you choose plus the adicional the machine draws, seven numbers determine the outcome of each draw. The full range all of them come from — the six plus the adicional — is 1 to 56.
How many numbers do you need to pick to play Melate?
Six, always. Whether you mark them by hand or use a quick pick, your ticket needs exactly six distinct numbers from 1 to 56 to count as a valid entry.
Does the adicional count as one of the six main numbers?
No. The adicional is drawn separately and exists purely to define prizes below the jackpot tier. To win the jackpot, you only need to match the six main numbers.
How many numbers does Melate Retro have?
The same structure as classic Melate — six numbers chosen by the player plus one adicional — but with a shorter range: 1 to 39 instead of 1 to 56. That reduces the total number of possible combinations and improves the jackpot odds compared to Melate.
The bottom line
Next time you have the slip in front of you — at a corner-store counter or in the official app — the count is simple: six numbers of your own, a range of 56 to choose them from, and a seventh that the machine sets and you don't control. Everything else, Revancha and Revanchita columns included, is built on that same foundation.
If you're clear on how many numbers you need, the next step is how to choose them. MelateBot AI Picks analyzes the historical record of draws and generates balanced combinations for your next play.
MelateBot is not affiliated with Pronósticos para la Asistencia Pública or any government entity. Melate is a game of chance: no method, system, or frequency analysis predicts, guarantees, or improves the odds of matching the winning numbers. Please play responsibly and within your means.