In a conventional slot, each reel shows a fixed number of symbol positions (three, say) and wins are paid along defined paylines. In a Megaways slot, the number of symbols on each reel is redrawn every spin, commonly between two and seven and up to eight on some titles, and there are no paylines at all. Instead, any matching symbols on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost pay, which is called a ways-to-win system.
The total number of ways is the symbol counts on each reel multiplied together. A six-reel game showing seven symbols on every reel produces 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 = 117,649 ways, which is the figure the format is famous for. That maximum occurs on a minority of spins; most spins produce far fewer ways, which is exactly why the format feels volatile. Most Megaways titles carry an RTP in roughly the 96–97% range, with some reaching 98–99%, and that figure is per title rather than a property of the mechanic.
This table shows how the ways count moves as reel heights change on a standard six-reel Megaways layout. The arithmetic is just multiplication, and seeing it laid out explains why the headline number is so much larger than a typical spin.
| Symbols per reel | Ways to win | How often it feels like this | Effect on the spin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,2,2,2,2,2 | 64 | A flat, quiet spin | Very few matching routes; most spins here pay nothing |
| 3,3,3,3,3,3 | 729 | Common mid-range spin | Comparable to a conventional payline slot |
| 4,4,4,4,4,4 | 4,096 | A promising-looking board | Small wins become noticeably more frequent |
| 5,5,5,5,5,5 | 15,625 | Reels visibly taller | Multiple simultaneous wins become normal |
| 6,6,6,6,6,6 | 46,656 | Rare and obvious | The board fills the screen; tumbles chain more easily |
| 7,7,7,7,7,7 | 117,649 | The headline case, and uncommon | Maximum ways (the number quoted in marketing) |
| Mixed, e.g. 3,5,2,6,4,3 | 2,160 | What most spins actually look like | Uneven boards are the normal state, not the exception |
The bottom row is the honest one. Reel heights vary independently, so a mixed board is overwhelmingly the common case, and the 117,649 figure describes a ceiling rather than an average. Understanding that removes most of the disappointment players feel when a "117,649 ways" slot delivers a long run of flat spins.
| Feature | Classic payline slot | Fixed ways-to-win | Megaways |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel height | Fixed | Fixed | Redrawn every spin |
| Win routes | Defined paylines | Fixed ways count | Variable, up to 117,649 |
| Stake structure | Per line | Single total stake | Single total stake |
| Tumbles or cascades | Rare | Sometimes | Near-standard |
| Free-spin multipliers | Usually capped | Usually capped | Often uncapped within a round |
| Volatility | Varies by title | Moderate | Generally high |
| Typical RTP | Mid 90s | Mid 90s | Roughly 96–97%, some higher |
| Session feel | Steady | Steady | Long quiet runs punctuated by large rounds |
The row that matters most is volatility. A Megaways game and a classic slot can publish nearly identical RTP figures while producing completely different sessions, because RTP describes the long-run average and volatility describes how the return is distributed along the way. High volatility means the same theoretical return arrives in fewer, larger payments, which is exciting when it lands and expensive while you wait. Our slots explainer works through that distinction with numbers.
Megaways is licensed from Big Time Gaming by other studios, and while the core reel behaviour is consistent, a cluster of associated features appears in most implementations. Knowing what each actually does is more useful than knowing its marketing name.
A word on feature buys in particular. Buying a bonus round does not change the game's RTP in the long run (the price is calculated from the feature's expected value) but it dramatically compresses the timeline over which variance plays out. Spending fifty or a hundred times your base stake in one click is a different activity from spinning at that base stake, whatever the paytable says, and most bonus terms void a promotion outright if you use one while wagering.
Set the symbol count on each reel to see how the ways total moves. It is simple multiplication, and watching the number swing between a few hundred and six figures explains the format better than any description.
Expected cost is the long-run average implied by the RTP you entered. On a high-volatility Megaways title a single session will deviate from it substantially in either direction — that dispersion is the mechanic's entire character.
These are the games that established and shaped the mechanic, listed with the studio behind each. Availability in any particular lobby varies by region and licensing, so treat this as an overview of the format's landmarks rather than a catalogue — check the lobby's own search for what is actually playable.
| Title | Studio | Why it matters | How it plays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Born Megaways | Big Time Gaming | The first Megaways game, 2016 | The original template — variable reels, no paylines |
| Bonanza Megaways | Big Time Gaming | The title that made the format mainstream | Mining theme with tumbles and an escalating free-spin multiplier |
| Extra Chilli Megaways | Big Time Gaming | Popularised the feature gamble and bonus buy | High variance, with the option to gamble extra free spins |
| White Rabbit Megaways | Big Time Gaming | Introduced reel expansion into the bonus round | Reels grow during free spins, raising the ways ceiling |
| Gonzo's Quest Megaways | Red Tiger | First major licensed adaptation of an existing hit | Cascades with a rising multiplier, familiar theme |
| Buffalo Rising Megaways | Blueprint Gaming | Showed the mechanic working outside its creator | Straightforward implementation, widely available |
| Fishin' Frenzy Megaways | Blueprint Gaming | Adapted a payline classic to variable reels | Lighter volatility than most Megaways games |
| Piggy Riches Megaways | Red Tiger | Another licensed conversion of an established title | Standard Megaways structure with familiar symbols |
We do not publish an RTP or volatility figure for any individual title here, because those are set per game and per operator configuration. Open the game's information panel — the number shown there is the one that applies to the version you are playing.
Slot design before 2016 was largely a competition over themes and bonus rounds layered on a stable underlying structure: fixed reels, defined paylines, a per-line stake. Megaways changed the structure itself, and that is why its influence spread so far so quickly. A studio adopting it was not licensing a theme or a feature; it was licensing a different way for reels to behave, which every subsequent design decision then had to accommodate.
Three consequences followed across the industry. The first was the collapse of the payline as a concept in new titles. Once players accepted a single total stake with no line selection, the interface simplified, and even non-Megaways games adopted the same approach. The second was the normalisation of tumbles. Cascading symbols existed before, but pairing them with variable reel heights made chains far more interesting, and they became standard equipment in modern slot design.
The third, and most significant commercially, was the shift towards higher volatility as a default rather than an option. Uncapped free-spin multipliers gave studios a way to advertise enormous maximum wins without raising RTP at all, since the same theoretical return simply arrives less often in larger amounts.
That last point is worth restating, because it is where most players' intuition fails. A slot advertising a maximum win of many thousands of times the stake is not a more generous slot. It is a slot that has concentrated its return distribution further out into the tail. The RTP figure, which sits quietly in the information panel, is unchanged by any of it, and it is the only number that describes what the game actually returns over time. Our slots explainer works through how RTP and volatility interact with a numeric example.
The licensing model also explains something players notice without understanding: why Megaways games from different studios feel so different despite sharing a core. Big Time Gaming licenses the mechanic, not the maths. Each studio builds its own symbol distributions, trigger frequencies, multiplier rules and win caps on top of it. A Megaways title from one provider can be a moderately paced game with frequent small wins, while another is punishingly quiet between bonus rounds, and both are legitimately Megaways games.
Because Megaways titles concentrate their return into infrequent bonus rounds, the practical question is not which title to play but at what stake, and for how long. A stake that is comfortable on a low-volatility slot can empty a balance on a high-volatility one before the feature triggers once.
| Session balance | Conservative stake | Approximate spins available | What that buys you |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20 | £0.10 | 200 | Enough to see the game's base pace, possibly one bonus round |
| £50 | £0.20 | 250 | A realistic sample of feature frequency on most titles |
| £100 | £0.40 | 250 | Similar sample at a stake where a bonus round is meaningful |
| £200 | £0.80 | 250 | Higher stakes, identical structural exposure |
| Any balance | Feature buy at 100x | Roughly 2 purchases per £20 unit | A single outcome instead of a session — maximum variance |
The pattern in that table is deliberate: a stake of roughly one two-hundred-and-fiftieth of your session balance gives you enough spins to encounter the bonus round at typical trigger frequencies on most Megaways titles. That is not a strategy for winning (no stake size changes RTP) but it is a strategy for the session lasting long enough to be the experience you paid for rather than ending in eighty spins.
The final row makes the contrast explicit. A feature buy converts a planned session into a single event. Nothing about it is dishonest, and the price genuinely reflects the feature's expected value, but a player who buys two bonus rounds and stops has had a fundamentally different afternoon from one who spun 250 times. Deciding which of those you actually want, before you open the game, is worth more than any information about the title itself.
Find the RTP first. It is in the information panel, usually on the first or last page. Operators can sometimes configure a title at different RTP settings, so the figure in your lobby is the one that counts, not the one quoted in a review elsewhere.
Check the maximum win cap. Nearly every Megaways game caps the total win at a multiple of the stake. A capped round ends there regardless of what the multiplier reached, and the cap is where the marketing headline about enormous multipliers meets reality.
Look at how the multiplier behaves in free spins. Whether it resets between spins is the difference between a moderate bonus round and the format's signature outcome. The paytable states it explicitly.
Read the scatter trigger. How many scatters are needed, and whether additional scatters add spins, determines how often the bonus round appears at all.
Note the stake range. Because there are no paylines, the stake is a single figure rather than a per-line amount, which makes Megaways titles easy to play at higher stakes than intended if you are used to line-based games.
Try it in demo mode. Free play will not tell you anything about your luck, but it will show you the feature frequency, the pace and whether the title's volatility suits you, which is exactly what you want to know before committing real stakes.
The format generates more folklore than any other, partly because its headline numbers are so large and partly because its long quiet stretches invite explanation. These are the beliefs worth correcting.
| The belief | What is actually happening |
|---|---|
| "The game is due a bonus round after a long dry spell" | Every spin is independent. A random number generator has no memory of previous outcomes, so a hundred quiet spins change nothing about the hundred-and-first. Our slots page explains how the generator actually works. |
| "More ways on screen means a better spin" | More ways means more routes for a match, but the symbol distribution adjusts accordingly. A tall board is visually exciting rather than mathematically advantageous. |
| "Higher stakes trigger features more often" | Trigger frequency is independent of stake. Higher stakes change the size of outcomes, not their probability. |
| "Playing at a quiet time improves results" | Outcomes are generated per spin per player. There is no shared pool being drawn down by other people, except on a linked progressive jackpot — covered on our jackpot page. |
| "The maximum win figure is what you could realistically get" | It is a cap, not a target, and reaching it typically requires an extreme sequence within a bonus round. Most bonus rounds resolve at a small fraction of it. |
| "Autoplay pays differently from manual spins" | It does not. Autoplay changes only the pace, and pace increases total turnover, which increases expected cost per hour at the same stake. |
| "A title with 117,649 ways is a Megaways game by definition" | The number is a consequence of six reels at seven symbols each. Games with fixed reels can advertise large ways counts without using the licensed mechanic at all. |
The common thread is that the format's presentation emphasises exactly the things that do not affect returns — the ways counter, the multiplier ticking upward, the reels visibly growing — while the two things that do, RTP and volatility, sit in a menu most players never open. Opening that menu takes ten seconds and is the single most useful habit available to a slot player.
A Megaways paytable rewards reading in a fixed order, and almost nobody reads it that way. Take the four steps below and the structured information on the screen turns into a decision instead of a light show.
For example, take a 20p stake on a title with 117,649 ways. The ways figure sounds like generosity, but the stake is divided across all of them, so a 3-symbol line win commonly returns less than the spin cost. The money in this format lives in the tumbles and the multiplier, not in the headline number.
Lists of Megaways games get long quickly. A curated shortlist beats a full catalogue every time.
| What you are checking | Where it bites |
|---|---|
| wagering requirement | Slots usually contribute fully, so Megaways titles clear bonuses efficiently |
| playthrough | High variance makes a large playthrough risky on a small balance |
| no deposit bonus | Often limited to named titles, which may exclude the Megaways build |
| KYC verification | A big feature win is exactly when an unverified account hurts most |
Big Time Gaming, which introduced it in 2016 with Dragon Born Megaways. Other studios produce Megaways titles under licence, which is why the mechanic appears across many different providers' catalogues.
No. The ways count describes how many routes exist on that particular spin, not how generous the game is. RTP and volatility determine the return, and the maximum ways figure occurs on a minority of spins.
Most sit in roughly the 96–97% range according to published guidance, with some titles reaching 98–99%. It varies by title and sometimes by operator configuration, so read the figure in the game itself.
Generally yes. Variable reel heights, tumbles and escalating multipliers concentrate the return into fewer, larger outcomes, which produces longer quiet runs between them.
The price is calculated from the feature's expected value, so it is neither a bargain nor a trap in RTP terms. What it does is compress a great deal of variance into a single moment, and it breaches most bonus terms if a wagering requirement is active.
Usually yes, since they are video slots and slots are typically weighted at 100%. Feature buys are the exception and are commonly prohibited outright — check the specific terms on our bonus page.
Yes. They are HTML5 titles like the rest of the lobby, though the taller boards benefit from a larger screen. Our mobile overview covers browser versus app play.
Almost certainly the maximum win cap. Most Megaways titles limit a round's total to a multiple of the stake, and once reached the round ends and pays that figure regardless of the multiplier on screen.
Availability varies by region and licensing. Search the lobby to see which Megaways games are playable on your account.
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