The brainchild of Aussie online slots maker Big Time Gaming (BTG), Megaways is a random reel modifier that changes the number of symbols dropping on each reel during a new spin to generate tens and even hundreds of thousands of ways to win.
Its introduction in 2016 seemed like the overnight success the online casino industry needed to further propel its never-ending efforts to innovate and stay relevant.
The mechanic became so popular that other game creators wanted to have it and incorporate it in their titles. BTG started licensing it to fellow iGaming software developers in 2018, which literally resulted in an explosion of Megaways titles. The franchise now boasts more than 100 slots crafted by a number of studios, and their number constantly grows.
If Megaways is a concept you’re not particularly familiar with, then we recommend that you read our article on this game-changing engine that is widely celebrated as the biggest industry innovation in many years.
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And if Megaways slots are something you’re really keen to try out, then you probably want to know which one of them offers the best return to player (RTP) value. In this article, we’re providing our readers with a list of some of the best paying Megaways titles and what’s the absolute maximum a player can win playing these.
Online Slots RTP and Why It Matters
For an experienced slots player, the return to player (RTP) value is one of the most important pieces of information about one game or another. It helps players estimate roughly how much they can expect to lose when playing slots.
It has been generally accepted that any game with RTP set at 98% or above offers a high payout rate. Anything between 95% and 97.99% is mid-range to average, while anything below 94.99% is considered low.
In Megaways terms, 97.77% is the highest RTP that you can find in a slot equipped with this mechanic at this point. But the future holds unknown possibilities, so maybe developers will come up with even better paying games.
Until then, here are the Megaways slots with the highest RTP value that you can find at online casinos.
White Rabbit Megaways
There’s an abundance of Alice in Wonderland-themed titles in the endless slots universe, but Big Time Gaming’s rendition of this children’s classic is easily one of the best out there with its impeccable graphics and equally nice soundtrack, the Megaways mechanic, and a plethora of other features.
Released in 2017, White Rabbit is the best paying Megaways slot produced so far by any developer with RTP of between 97.24% and 97.77%.
The game takes players down the rabbit hole and into an enchanted forest where sunlight playfully dances its way in slits between the trees, while a five-reel arrangement awaits players to dare their luck.
Equipped with the Megaways engine, each of the five reels can host between 2-7 symbols during base game, good for up to 16,807 ways to win. The number of active Megaways during each spin are displayed in a box above the reels.
During Free Spins, each reel can expand to up to 12 rows for the outrageous number of 248,832 winways. We’re going to talk about this feature in a very short while.
But let’s first take a look at the paytable.
Of course, we find characters from Lewis Carroll’s book there. The lowest-paying symbols include the 9-A card symbols that may or may not depict Alice in Wonderland characters depending on how large they are when they appear on the reels.
On the high pay side are a green, blue, and red precious stones, and the Queen of Hearts who pays for at least two of her kind. Players get 25x their stake’s worth for five of this premium symbol.
This slot comes with two Wilds – a regular one that can appear on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 and substitutes for all pay symbols and a Bonus Wild which is triggered randomly during base game. A Caterpillar appears and blows smoke rings at random icons on the reels to turn them into Bonus Wilds. These symbols multiply winning combos they are part of by x2 or x3.
The White Rabbit is the Scatter. Three of it trigger the Bonus Game and award 15 free spins. Players are swept down the rabbit hole for the special game. At its start, each reel has five or seven rows, but whenever a Cupcake symbol hops onto a reel, it expands by one additional row. As mentioned above, each reel can reach up to 12 rows in height. When this happens, players are awarded between three and 12 additional free spins.
If all reels expand to 12 rows, the total number of Megaways will increase to up to 248,832.
What’s new about this slot is that it debuts BTG’s Feature Drop option that enables players to buy into the Bonus Game feature instead of waiting for three White Rabbits to hop onto the reels. The full cost for triggering the free spins mode is 100x the bet.
With the Megaways system and the game’s additional feature, players can win up to 13,000x their stake. Bets range from 0.10 to 20 in a currency of a player’s choice.
Medusa Megaways
After the overwhelming success of Megaways and after Big Time began licensing it to fellow slots makers, a number of classic games were reinvented and equipped with the mechanic. Medusa, a title by NextGen Gaming that had been released in two installments, was one of the games that got a Megaways boost.
Medusa Megaways’ RTP sits at 96.27%, if you trigger its bonus game by waiting for three Scatters to pop, or at 97.632%, if you buy into the feature. The slot was developed by NextGen and is distributed by SG Digital, the online gambling division of industry giant Scientific Games.
Set against the backdrop of ancient Greek ruins, the game pays homage to its two predecessors with graphics intentionally looking slightly outdated and almost an identically creepy accompanying sounds, including the occasional thunder.
The slot features six reels on a main reel array. Reels 1 and 6 can host between 2 and 7 symbols during each spin. Reels 2 through 5 can accommodate between 2 and 6 symbols. The game includes an extra reel – a four-symbol arrangement above reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 that helps players form winning combinations. Including that extra reel, players randomly get between 324 and 117,649 Megaways during each spin.
The low pays on the table include the card royals from 10 through A. Then come the premiums that include winged sandals, an intricate silver and gold ring, a gold snakes pendant, a Trojan shield, and Pegasus, the latter of which paying a whopping 30x the stake for a winning combination of six symbols.
Medusa, a creature in Greek mythology that has living venomous snakes in place of hair and turns everyone looking directly into her eyes into stone, serves as the game’s Wild. This symbol substitutes for all other icons on the reels except the Scatter and the Soldier. The latter only appears on the extra reel bar during Free Spins.
NextGen has equipped its game with cascading reels, meaning that a winning combination triggers a chain reaction that sees icons forming the combo disappear from the screen to make room for new ones. This continues until the wins stop. The slot is also packed with different features and here’s a bit more about each one of them. The first one…
… Medusa’s Gaze …
activates randomly when a Wild symbol appears on a reel. When this happens, Medusa comes out of nowhere to cover the reel where the Wild has landed and duplicate the symbol and help players land additional wins.
When three or more Scatters appear the Free Spins round is unlocked and that’s where the game becomes really entertaining and potentially more lucrative. Players get 10 free spins for three Scatters. Every additional Scatter awards five more spins.
When the feature is unlocked, players are transported into an ancient temple. Once the bonus round begins, they can benefit from an unlimited win multiplier that starts from x2 and can go up endlessly as every winning combination increases it by one. The Medusa’s Gaze feature can activate during Free Spins, as well.
This bonus game offers one more feature…
… that can boost winnings. When one or more Soldier symbols land on the extra reel, the Snake Strike feature is activated. It sees one of the two snakes at the sides of this additional row of icons attack the Soldier. If the one on the left lashes out, the symbol becomes a Wild, if the one on the right comes out, the symbol becomes a Scatter.
There’s also a Temptation feature that in most other slots is referred to as a Gamble option. After players land a winning combo, they are offered the chance to either collect their win or gamble it and potentially increase it if they guess correctly a playing card’s color and/or suit.
Finally, we should note that players can buy into the Free Spins feature with the special Buy Pass option. At 100x the stake, the price to enter the Bonus Game is a bit on the steep side, but as we noted above it brings the game’s payout rate to 97.632%.
With all the additional features and the Megaways mechanic, the most a player can win from this thrilling game is 50,000x their stake. The minimum bet that can be placed on this game is 0.25. Players can bet up to 25 in a preferred currency.
Gorilla Gold Megaways
Utilizing not one but two exciting mechanics, players are in for a real treat with this Blueprint Gaming-crafted jungle-themed slot. Aside from Megaways, the game is also equipped with the so-called Power 4 Play engine that places not one, not two, not three, but four sets of six reels on the screen for ginormous win potential.
Gorilla Gold Megaways’ RTP is set at 97% and since Blueprint does not use flexible RTP, you’ll play the game with that payout rate across all online casinos it is available at.
This online slot is set deep in the jungle where mighty gorillas demonstrate perfect balance and agility on vines. The paytable includes low-paying 10-A card symbols and jungle creatures as the more generous icons. Players can encounter snakes, crocodiles, tigers, and of course gorillas across the four reel sets. The latter symbol is the most lucrative one, paying 50x the stake for six of a kind. At least three matching symbols are required for a win, except the Gorilla which forms a winning combo with just two symbols on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost one.
Each set has six reels with an additional row of symbols above reels 2, 3, 4, and 5. Each reel can host up to seven icons and can offer up to 117,649 winways for a total of 470,596 across all four sets of reels. In other words, players are playing not one, but four Megaways slots at the same time.
And each of the four games comes with a cascade feature, meaning that winning combinations explode to let new symbols slide into view for potential new wins within a single spin.
The Wild can only appear above the middle four reels and substitutes for all icons on the reel set but the Scatter. The latter is represented by a shiny diamond and four of it are required to unlock the Bonus Game.
While the game comes with the standard features for a Megaways slot, their win potential is multiplied by the number of reel sets available.
The Mystery Symbol…
… is the first feature that we’d like to say a few words about. It appears randomly and changes into any matching symbol from the paytable.
As mentioned above, four or more Scatters activate the Gorilla Gold Bonus game. At the start of this feature, players are invited to spin a wheel and get either free spins or Super Spins.
For four Scatters players can get up to 20 free spins or 15 Super Spins, for five Diamond symbols they will get up to 25 free spins or 20 Super Spins, for six Diamonds they will get up to 30 free spins or 25 Super Spins, and for seven Scatters they will be awarded up to 35 free spins or 30 Super Spins.
Next, players can use the game’s Gamble feature for more spins. They will have to spin a wheel that is split in red and green sectors. If they land a green sector, they will upgrade the number of their free or Super Spins. However, if they land on a red sector, they will lose some of the ones they already got or even all of them. They can also skip that additional feature and hop into the bonus game.
The standard Free Spins game is played as any other of this kind. And just like many Megaways titles, it comes with a multiplier set at x1 and increasing by 1 with each winning combination. The Scatter could appear during Free Spins to award more extra spins and extend the round.
If players opt for the Super Spins bonus game, it will start with just one active reel set and players will have to collect tokens to unlock the other three. When players unlock a new set of reels, they are awarded five more spins.
Here it is important to note that while players can select to wager between 0.10 and 10 in a preferred currency, everything is multiplied by five – by four for each of the four reel sets and by 1 for the Super Bet, which is activated during base game and when active, makes it possible for the player to play the Super Spins bonus game. This means that total wagers range from 0.50 all the way up to 50. The top prize players can scoop playing this game is capped at 20,000x the stake.
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Queen of Riches Megaways
Ancient Egypt is a popular theme among slots makers and there are tons of titles inspired by life in that stage of humankind. BTG’s Queen of Riches Megaways is one such game. Action in this six-reel online slot revolves around Cleopatra, the legendary Queen of the Nile, feared and adored in equal measures.
The game offers RTP of 96.9% and while it doesn’t have a Free Spins round, it still comes with excellent features during base mode that we’re going to talk about a bit later.
Firstly…
… we would like to take a look at the paytable. The card symbols 9 through A represent the lower-paying symbols. The premiums come in the form of various Egypt-related items, including the Eye of Horus, a blue scarab beetle, Horus, the falcon god, himself, and a pyramid. The latter is the highest-paying symbol offering 50x the stake for six of a kind.
Each of the game’s six reels can host between 2 and 7 symbols. Megaways can reach up to 117,649 during every spin.
Cleopatra herself serves as the game’s Wild. And as befits a Queen, she occupies an entire reel thanks to the game’s Full Reel Wilds feature. When this symbol lands on the reels, it substitutes for all other pay icons. It can count as up to seven symbols and when part of a winning combo multiplies the payout by up to x7.
Multiple Full Reel Wilds…
… multiply each other and can offer a multiplier of up to x49. The game’s Wild symbol only appears on reels 2 through 6.
Reel Clone is another exciting feature that is part of this game. During each and every spin, up to six identical reels can be produced thanks to that feature. The Wild symbol can too be cloned for an additional boost of a player’s win.
The minimum stake that can be placed in this game goes to as low as 0.20, while the maximum bet cap stands at 10 in a preferred currency. The Reel Clone feature and the fact that Full Reel Wilds can too be cloned to spread across all six reels may result in players winning up to 50,000x their bet.
In other words, this nice blend of features during base game kind of compensates for the lack of a Bonus Game. In addition, BTG once again doesn’t fail in delivering a slot with terrific graphics. That combined with the great theme, ancient Egypt never really gets old in the slots universe, make for one very enjoyable product. And of course, the additional boost of the Megaways engine makes the experience offered by Queen of Riches 117,649 times more enjoyable.
Primal Megaways
Blueprint was one of the early Megaways adopters. The studio quickly began upgrading many of its old games with BTG’s mechanic as soon as the latter started licensing it to fellow creators. But it also introduced some new games equipped with the powerful engine to enrich its portfolio. Primal Megaways was one of these new titles.
The game features six reels that can accommodate between 2 and 6 symbols. Its RTP is set at 96.76%, which is 1% lower than BTG’s absolute champion White Rabbit, but is still pretty okay.
Now this online slot features up to 46,656 ways to win during every spin. But we promise, what it lacks in Megaways, it offsets with a nice mix of special features.
The game takes players back to prehistoric times where wild beasts roam the world. The paytable reveals low pays represented by the royal cards 10 through A hewn out of rock. Animals of all kinds serve as the premiums. These include a moose, a warthog, a woolly rhino, a saber-toothed cat, and a mammoth, which pays 50x the stake.
Players will also come across a fiery Mystery symbol that will be popping randomly on the reels every once in a while. When it hops on the reels, it reveals a random symbol except the Mammoth Bonus symbol and the Wild. The latter is represented by a fossilized paw print. As for the Wild, it substitutes for all pay symbols.
To trigger the Primal Bonus game, players need three or more Mammoth Bonus icons anywhere on the reels. If they get three Scatters, they will be awarded 10 free spins and Wild multipliers of x2 and x3. Four Scatters award 15 free spins and x2, x3, and x4 Wild multipliers. Five Scatters give players 20 free spins and x2, x3, x4, and x5 Wild multipliers. And finally, six Scatters award 30 free spins and x2, x3, x4, x5, and x6 Wild multipliers.
Whenever a Wild lands on the reels during the bonus game, it transforms into a Wild multiplier. Wilds drop on reels 2 through 6 in Primal Bonus mode. In addition, they multiply each other for really massive win potential.
Two or more scatters award extra spins. The game can be retriggered countless times. And one more thing you won’t leave the bonus round empty-handed.
As any game that ends in less than 10 times a player’s total bet retriggers automatically for a new, hopefully more successful, round.
The minimum bet a player can place with this slot is 0.10, while the maximum bet is capped at 10 in a preferred currency. The absolute maximum that can be scooped is 50,000x the stake, which makes for a sweet win.
