Megaways Slots Review & List of Casinos 2024

Vienne Garcia

8 min read

Megaways Slots Facts
Brand:	Megaways™
Patent:	Innovative Megaways Slot Mechanic
Special feature:	Up to 117,649 paylines
Developer:	Big Time Gaming
Developed:	2015
Licensee:	eg. Red Tiger, Netent, Blueprint, Microgaming, Pragmatic Play
First Megaways Slot:	Dragon Born (BTG)
Best Megaways Slot:	Bonanza Megaways (BTG)
Best Megaways Casino:	BitStarz

Slots have come a long way since the days of the old school fruit machine in the bar. Because it's all software based, the sky's the limit when it comes to what online slots can be.

Video slots with more paylines quickly emerged, and then in 2015 there was a breakthrough: the Australian developer Big Time Gaming, aka BTG, came up with Megaways slot mechanic.

The Megaways mechanic, in case you haven't tried the game, will give you a win when you have matching symbols touching each other. There aren't any paylines. It also plays on a larger grid with 6 reels. The grid is expandable, which means the number of rows can vary between 2 and 7 in game.

When the grid is fully expanded, there are obviously more opportunities for you to form matching symbols, and what this means is that there is a chance of up to 117,649 wins on a spin, and some games might even have 200,704 ways to win.

The very first Megaways game, Dragon Born, was released in early 2016. In December 2016, Bonanza Megaways was born. The latter is practically of legendary status today and is a popular title at many slot sites.

Play Megaways Slots at BitStarz

Megaways are best known for the thousands of ways to win, but on top of that there are also free spins, multipliers and all the other special features you're used to from regular video slots.

As casino pros, we're going to give you the lowdown on Megaway slots in this article. We'll cover things like:

• The best Megaways slots along with the best sites to play them at
• How Megaways differ from regular slots, and how the mechanic works
• Pros and Cons to Megaways games

Table of Contents

Best Megaways Slots 2024

The world has really caught on to the Megaways mechanic, and they're as hot as hot chocolate cupcakes. The concept has proved to be so popular that well known video slots like NetEnt's Gonzo's Quest, Blueprint Gaming's Ted slot and many, many more have partnered up with BTG to release Megaways versions of their games.

There's no shortage of choice here with at least 70 games available today. We've put together a list of the 5 Best Megaways slots. This is of course the opinion of our editorial team, but we always check what is popular with players too!

Our top 5 Megaways slot games

1. Bonanza Megaways
Bonanza is considered as one of the first and most classic Megaways games. The theme is a Wild West mine with all sorts of gems to be won with 117,649 ways to win. Other highlights include the 26,000x max win.

2. The Dog House Megaways
The Dog House from Pragmatic Play has been one of the most popular titles with casino streamers, and now there's a Megaways version available. Other than the mechanic, you're looking at a higher max win at 12,000x stake size, versus 6,750x in the original game.

3. Madame Destiny Megaways
Another popular title from Pragmatic Play gets a makeover, Madame Destiny Megaways has up to 200,704 ways to win. This game has Bonus Buy and Ante Bet options if you want to get to the free spins round faster.

4. Monopoly Megaways
Fans of the board game definitely need to check this out. There's been a lot of Monopoly slots coming out in the last years, but Monopoly Megaways is hands down one of the best, with Utilities, Railway Stations and the Community Chest integrated as bonus features. Of course, it's played with 117,649 ways to win too.

5. Buffalo Rising Megaways
This gorgeous native animal themed Blueprint Gaming slot gets even better with 117,649 ways to win. Other highlights include unlimited win multipliers during the free spin bonus round. It's a medium variance Megaways game with a max payout of 10,000x bet size.

The Best Megaways Casinos 2024

With these games' popularity, it's easy to find a slot site to play. Of course, having been around the scene a bit, we have our faves too. Below is our editors' list of the best casinos to play Megaways slots. As usual, you can expect awesome customer service and plenty of promotions.

Some of these sites even have a special tab for Megaways under their slots menu so you can see the full selection right away.

All casinos are fully licensed 🔒 Recommended by experts ✅

Casino	Bonus	License	Recommendation
Stake Review	$500	Curacao Gaming	96%Highly Recommendedvisit Stake
Lucky Days Review	$1,500+ 100 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming MGA Malta	95%Highly Recommendedvisit Lucky Days
Cloudbet Casino Review	5 BTC / $1,000 + 200 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	95%Highly Recommendedvisit Cloudbet Casino
Instaspin Review	$1,000 + 100 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit Instaspin
BC.Game Casino Review	Virtually unlimited	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit BC.Game Casino
BookofCasino Review	$1,500	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit BookofCasino
Let's Lucky Review	C$ 4000+ 300 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit Let's Lucky
Bizzo Casino Review	$1,000+ 150 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit Bizzo Casino
PlayZilla Review	$1,500 + 500 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit PlayZilla
Betandplay Review	C$2,500+ 300 Free Spins	Curacao Gaming	94%Recommendedvisit Betandplay

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⏱The brands and bonuses above were last updated on 27. April, 2024. We test and check casinos regularly to provide up-to-date information. However, there may still be instances where there may be differences between a casino's newest offering and the listing on this site.

How does the Megaways Mechanic Work?

A lot of players are curious about how the Megaways slots work. We fully understand that it looks a bit complicated at first with the bigger grid, but really, it's much simpler than it sounds. But to get a full understanding of the Megaway mechanic, we need to first explain how slots pay out first.

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Examples of paylines based on a classic Fruit slot. In the screenshot on the left side, the "traditional" payline is drawn across the middle of the reels. On the right are examples of paylines in more modern slots that can run not only horizontally or not only across the middle. The only important thing is the "direction" from left to right.

Now, when it comes to a Megaways game, there is a base of 6 reels. The rows are expandable, which means they can go from 2 to 7 during the game. Obviously, you could fit a lot more paylines in here, but the genius in the Megaways mechanic is that it does away with paylines completely. No more lines running across the grid.

But how do you win in a Megaways slot then, you might ask.

Well, this is exactly where the fun begins. You only need to have a minimum of 3 matching symbols touching each other to score. So that is literally your "way to win" and these winning combinations are sometimes called clusters because they can take on a myriad of forms because all they need is to touch another matching symbol horizontally or vertically. So for example, if you have 2 symbols in a reel, and 1 of them has another touching its side, then that's a winning cluster. When the grid is fully expanded, there can be up to 117,649 ways to win.

An example of winning lines based on the "original" Megaways slot Dragon Born - here the symbols are randomly arranged in such a way that lines can actually be drawnMoreLess

For example, in the diagram below, the red squares, which represent symbols, on the left are not touching each other, so there's no win. Meanwhile, in the diagram with green squares, you can see how the you have 2 winning clusters of green squares, each touching each other by sharing a vertical side.

Cascading Reels Built-in

In Megaways slots, winning clusters will disappear, and then the symbols sitting above them will fall down into their new place, making way for new symbols. This is what is called a Cascading Reels mechanic, which is sometimes also known as Tumbling Wins or Avalanche reels. No matter the name, it basically adds up to a free re-spin with every win.

The Cascading Reels can really add speed and excitement to the game, especially if you have more than 1 winning cluster. The symbols disappear so fast to be replaced by new ones immediately, and of course, it keeps on rolling by itself until there are no winning clusters. Combine this with the expanding grid, it can all be a very energetic gaming experience.

It's obviously very different from regular slots, but in a way it can be simpler because let's face it: who remembers how those 25 or however many paylines run? In Megaways slots, the wins are much simpler to identify. Other than this, the game plays essentially the same, meaning:

• You can play Megaways slots for free in demo mode at the casinos listed on this page
• Real money can only be won when you play with real money deposits
• Bet size is adjustable to suit individual budgets and risk appetites.
• Each round begins when you press the spin button, unless you opt for the Auto Play function.

Special features in Megaways Slot

In addition to the 117, 649 ways to win and the Cascading Reels mechanic, Megaways slots have other awesome features, many of which you would expect from video slots:

1. Wilds
2. Scatters
3. Free Spins
4. Horizontal Reel
5. Bonus Buy

1.) Wilds

Wilds are symbols that can replace any other symbol to give you a winning combination, so they definitely come in handy.

2.) Scatters

What Scatter symbols do is that they unlock special bonus features like free spins within the game. You may have to have more than one Scatter to start unlocking, and often the more Scatters you have, the more free spins you might see in the bonus round. Sometimes there might be multipliers added too.

3.) Free Spins

All slot players love free spins and it's exactly what is advertised in the name. You get to have a real money spin for free.  Free spins are the crux of every bonus round and sometimes they are re-triggerable, meaning that you can add more free spins to your bonus round in progress.

How to Get Free Spins in Megaways Slots

If you're wondering how you can get to the free spins bonus round in a Megaways game, then the quickest route is by opting for the Bonus Buy feature. How it works is that with a higher one time bet, you'll entire into the bonus round immediately.

Some other slots have a so called, Ante Bet feature, which doubles your chances of getting into the bonus round. Your bet per spin will cost a bit more, although it's cheaper than Bonus Buy. On the other hand, it only doubles your chances to getting the free spins, while it's guaranteed with the Bonus Buy.

Of course, neither of these are a must. You can also play the good old fashioned way and enter the round through pure chance. However, depending on your luck, it may require a bit more patience, as on average, the scatters needed to unlock the free spins feature typically come together in around 100 spins.

Sometimes, slot sites and casinos such as the one listed on this page will also offer Megaways free spins as part of a featured promotion.

4.) Horizontal Reel

Sitting on top or on the bottom of the main game grid is a shorter row, called the Horizontal Reel. These can be part of your winning cluster and can add in bonus modifiers, like multipliers of different values.

At the Madame Destiny Megaways Slot the horizontal reel is above the game gridMoreLess

5.) Bonus Buy

Aka Bonus Bet or Feature Buy, Bonus Buy lets you access bonus rounds directly by placing a higher bet up front.

Are there Megaways Progressive Jackpots?

Progressive jackpots are famous for their huge payouts. The reason why the payouts get so big is because the progressive games are networked across casinos so that a portion of every single player's bet goes into a communal jackpot. It can build up to a pretty massive amount before one lucky player wins it all in a spin.

If you're on the hunt for one of these biggies, then it might be good to know that only some Megaways slots have progressive jackpots. Being the clever marketing specialists they are, Big Time Gaming has named Megaways with progressive jackpots "Megapays".

Some Megaways jackpot games include:

• Bonanza Megapays
• The Great Pigsby Megapays
• Star Cluster Megapays
• Millionaire Megapays, aka Who wants to be a Millionaire Megapays

These Megapays games have 4 jackpots in game:

• Mini
• Midi
• Major
• Mega

They are all progressive jackpots, and where they differ is the minimum payout. For example, Mini starts at $100, where as Mega starts at $300,000. None of them have upper limits though. It just means that the smaller jackpots get ripe much sooner and therefore pay out more frequently.

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How to win Megapays Jackpots

Progressive jackpots in Megapays slots can only be won from within the bonus round. The bonus round will start randomly, so it's all fair game no matter your bet size. When the bonus round begins, a special symbol will be designated as your Megapays symbol. The symbols are collected during the round, and if you will need at least 4 of them to make the smallest of the jackpots yours.

As with other progressive games, a part of every single spin from every single player playing the same game across different casinos contributes to the jackpots in the Megapays slots. The table below summarises how the four different jackpots in Megapays are built up, their minimum payout size, as well as the symbols needed to get a win.

Bonanza Megapays - Jackpot Rules Summary:

What are the Odds in Megaways Slots?

One of the most exciting things about Megaways is that there are a lot more winning possibilities than regular video slots. It's kind of obvious. The grid is much bigger, and you only need 3 matching symbols touching each other to win, instead of having to complete paylines across the 5 reels. In fact, one of their main selling points is that they have 117,649 ways to win in the game. Again, compared to regular slots that might have 25 paylines, this is clearly huge.

But where does the 117,649 in Megaways come from? Well, it's actually pretty simple math. Most of these games have 6 reels, and they can contain from 2 to 7 symbols each.

We say "most" because some games like Madame Destiny Megaways can have up to 8 symbols in their 6 reels, coming to a massive total of 200,704 ways to win. Meanwhile, the White Rabbit Megaways slot has the most winning possibilities we know of, at a very impressive 248,832.

But what about the actual payout in Megaways slots? This does vary a bit from game to game, but just as an example, Bonanza has a max payout of 26,000x your bet size. This is pretty much in line with top high roller video slots like Sweet Bonanza, which has max payout at 21,175x bet size.

Similarly, RTP will vary with each Megaways slot. For example, White Rabbit Megaways has a 97.77% RTP but generally speaking, you're looking at good RTPs around 96%, which is what you get with most video slots nowadays.

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1 Million Ways to Win with Gold Megaways

If hundreds of thousands of ways to win is not enough, then check out the Gold Megaways slot. The base game is the usual 6 reels with 117,649 ways to win, but when you enter the bonus round, the reels can have up to 10 symbols, making it a giant 1 million ways to win game.

Below are Gold Megaways slot specs summarized for you:

What's really cool about Gold Megaways is that you have the option to exchange your wins to unlock a bonus round of free spins. There are the usual wilds and multipliers too, of course.

By pressing on "Play", I understand that I will be shown content from Big Time Gaming. You can find more information in our website's Privacy Policy as well as that of Big Time Gaming. Big Time Gaming

Differences between Megaways and Conventional Slots

It's obvious. Megaways can be pretty different from your usual slots. Conventional slots use paylines, but Megaways just needs a cluster of matching symbols. Plus the grid on Megaways is just much bigger, and the reels will expand. We put it all together in the table below to sum all the differences for you.

Pros and Cons to Megaways Slots

So you get that Megaways are different. But how do these differences translate into advantages in gameplay? As always, this depends on what kind of a player you are, but to help you make your choice, we put together the main pros and cons to Megaways slots.

About Big Time Gaming

Behind Megaways games is the developer called Big Time Gaming, aka BTG. The Australian company was started in 2011 by Nik Robinson. While they're most famous for Megaways today, the company has made a variety of popular video slots with innovative mechanisms, like Donuts, which plays on a 4×4 grid. Then there's also Danger High Voltage, a 4,096 ways to win game.

What's different about BTG's approach as a company is that they secured rights to the Megaways mechanic, and license it out to other developers. Seeing how popular the mechanic is with players, other software providers have taken out a license with BTG to develop a Megaways version of their game. This includes leading names, like NetEnt's Gonzo's Quest Megaways, which was released in Summer 2020.

In 2021, Big Time Gaming was acquired by Evolution Gaming, the leading developer for live casino games. Nik Robinson remains CEO of BTG in this setup, and we're expecting more crazy casino innovations from this partnership in the near future.

Megaways Slots FAQ

1. Are Megaways slots all from BTG?
2. Are winnings higher in Megaways games?
3. Where can I play Megaways slots for free?
4. How many Megaways slots are there?
5. Which Megaways Slots have the highest RTPs?

1.) Are Megaways slots all from BTG?

BTG developed the Megaways mechanic and makes many of these slots. The company also secured a patent for the mechanic, so that other developers interested in making Megaways games have to lease a licence from BTG. That's how you see many popular video slots like Fruit Shop and Gonzo's Quest from NetEnt, 88 Fortunes from Bally, and Genie Jackpots from Blueprint Gaming with Megaways versions.

To date, the following developers have released Megaways versions of their games:

• 
  Netent
• 
  Microgaming
• 
  Pragmatic Play
• 
  Bally Wulff

• 
  Blueprint Gaming
• 
  Fantasma Games
• 
  iSoftBet
• 
  Relax Gaming

• 
  Red Tiger
• 
  Stakelogic
• 
  Booming Games

2.) Are winnings higher in Megaways games?

Winnings will vary with each game, and it also depends on what you're comparing them to. In terms of max pay out, they are similar to regular video slots; but again, it will depend on which exact games are being compared. As any pro will tell you, video slots can easily have max payouts from 2,000x to well over 20,000x your bet size.

Megaways do tend to be in the high volatility range though. What this means is that payouts tend to be less frequent, but when they happen they tend to be bigger.

3.) Where can I play Megaways slots for free?

You can play Megaways for free at all the casinos listed on this very page, and just about at any casino that hosts the game.

You could do it in demo mode, but as we always remind our readers: demo mode won't let you win real money and you should keep your eye on the ball. Once you get a feel for the game, don't be afraid to play with real money. With Megaways min bet at a mere $0.05, it's pretty low risk. The casinos on this page also have excellent welcome bonuses, giving you a leg up on the way.

4.) How many Megaways slots are there?

Megaways coming out from Big Time Gaming exclusively total to 21 at the time of review. However, the absolute total is much higher at approximately 70 titles when you count the games made by other developers with the BTG Megaways licence.

5.) Which Megaways Slots have the highest RTPs?

On average, Megaways slots have an RTP of 96.22%, which is in line with any respectable video slot. There are titles that go above the average, and if you're looking for games with the highest RTPs, then check these out.

The Experts' Take on Megaway Slots

They look very different and may take a few minutes before you get the hang of them, but once you do, Megaways are really awesome with their thousands of ways to win. Gone are the classic paylines, and all that's needed are touching symbols, making it really fun with a lot more winning potential than classic and video slots.

It's really no surprise why Megaways have taken the online casino world by storm since BTG first launched the concept in 2015. And with developers big and small lining up to add a Megaways mechanic to their titles, we're seeing plenty of the most popular slots rolling out a Megaways version.

These are high energy games. With the reels expanding and contracting all the time to give you different winning possibilities, combined with the Tumbling Win, aka Avalanche, aka Cascading feature, the action is unpredictable and fast paced.

Volatility tends to be higher than average, so there may be some lulls before the pays coming in. They're really popular especially with high rollers looking to score big, but as always, we recommend that you check it out for yourself to see if the hype is real.

Megaways Casino BitStarz

Megaways Slots was tested and reviewed by Vienne Garcia

I've been working in the online casino landscape in Malta for more than 10 years and have seen how the industry works from customer service roles to the backend of the business. While I am lucky enough to call myself a native on the sunny island called Malta, I also enjoy travelling and have travelled across Canada! After wandering through the great white north, I have decided to share my knowledge and now work with Canadian players to compile accurate casino reviews to help players navigate through the hundreds of gaming sites online.