Game Mechanics of the Most Popular Online Slots

Slots are the most popular casino games both online and in land-based destinations. Typical brick-and-mortar casinos have over 1,000 slot machines and a few table games for fans of poker, blackjack, roulettes, and craps. Online casinos have even more offers, with some featuring up to 10,000 slot titles. With so many options, it’s difficult to pick the ultimate best.

However, avid gamers won’t dispute the fame of titles like Mega Moolah, Age of the Gods, Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest, Bonanza Megaways, or Sahara Riches. The list of best online slots probably features more than a hundred games, but most run on similar underlying mechanics. Here’s an overview of the game mechanics used in some of the most popular online slots:

The Megaways game mechanic remains one of the biggest innovations in gaming today. It was developed by Big Time Gaming and can be seen at play in slots such as Bonanza Megaways, Buffalo Rising, and any game with the Megaways TM next to its name. This game engine provides variable reels that change with each spin. Before BTG introduced megaways slots, games used to have fixed reels and positions. You could play classic 3x3 (three reels, three rows) or 5x3 (five reels, three rows) slots with 10, 30, or 243 fixed paylines.

With megaways, each spin provides anything from 2 to 10 rows. The original Megaways slot had six reels with 2 to 7 rows, resulting in up to 117,649 paylines. Modern megaways have more than a million ways to win with varying reels and rows. Dragon Born was the original Megaways slot released by BTG in 2015. Since then, many slots have emerged with the mechanic. Some of the popular slots games with the Megaways dynamic reels include Blood Suckers, White Rabbit, Wheel of Fortune, and Big Bad Wolf. Just choose the one with the term Megaways next to it.

The avalanche game mechanic became all the rage when NetEnt released its first platinum game, Gonzo’s Quest, back in 2011. Since then, the mechanic has been repeated in several of NetEnt’s slots and games from other software providers. Also known as cascading reels or tumble reels, avalanche slots give players the chance to win endlessly from a single spin. The energetic game mechanic provides a decent alternative to traditional static reels, creating more movement from each win.

Essentially, when you land a winning combination, the winning symbols disappear and new ones take their place. If you have another winning combo, the reels keep tumbling and the payouts are added to your bankroll. This happens until there’s no more winning combo, or when you’ve hit the maximum possible payout on the slot. Some of the popular titles with cascading reels include Jammin’ Jars, Reactoonz, Jewel Falls, Yak Yeti and Roll, Bonanza Billion, and ChilliPop. Each win is an opportunity for another payout without hitting the spin button.

Starburst is one of the popular slots that makes great use of expanding symbols. The mechanic is part of the reason Starburst is considered the best-ever video slot created. Expanding symbols are precisely what the name suggests. When a symbol lands on the reel, it expands to cover the entire reel or row. Starburst made use of expanding wilds that make the entire reel wild, allowing players to substitute other symbols and create multiple winning combinations. Legacy of Dead also made use of expanding scatter symbols to deliver more free spins bonuses.

The walking symbols mechanic is another development that’s close enough to the expanding symbols model. However, instead of covering the entire reel, the walking symbol moves across the row from one reel to the next with each spin. This leaves a trail of wilds or inherent special features the symbol carries. For instance, Monopoly Megaways has a walking wild that moves across the reels, giving players multiple opportunities to land winning combinations. Both expanding and walking symbols make the game more immersive and lucrative for players.

The progressive jackpot mechanic is a classic development that has been used by nearly all software providers. However, the feature is best demonstrated by Mega Moolah, one of the most popular progressive jackpot slots of all time. Mega Moolah has resulted in life-altering payouts on multiple occasions, cementing its place as one of the most lucrative slots to play at any time. Progressive jackpots take a portion of each bet players make and use it to contribute to a jackpot payout. Each spin increases the amount available in the pot.

When the jackpot is won, a new jackpot is immediately seeded. Some of these jackpots grow into millions of dollars before they’re won. Software providers also run the jackpots across multiple games and networks, resulting in massive payouts. The jackpot may be won randomly based on the game RNG or by landing a special feature, depending on the rules. Some of the popular progressive jackpot slots include Age of the Gods, Divine Fortune, Hall of God, Mega Fortune, and Gladiator Jackpot. Progressive jackpots provide some of the biggest slot payouts.

Modern slots feature various other game mechanics designed to make the experience more immersive and exciting for the player. Popular examples include Gigablox oversized symbols, Clusters/Megaclusters, Megapays, Splitz, mystery symbols, and locked reels. With AI technology becoming more accessible and new software developers entering the market, players can expect future slots to bring even more excitement and possibilities.