Slot games come in many shapes and sizes, and with so many mechanics and bonus features available, it can be hard to keep track! If you’re a regular at any online casino, there’s no doubt that you would have heard something about Megaways slots, even if you haven’t tried them before.

We’re here to tell you more about this gaming mechanic, which has brought the concept of paylines to another level! But before we jump into why we love them, we’ll give you a bit of background first.

The history of Megaways

All slot games are built using software mechanics, which refers to the way the games are designed to give payouts. The traditional format used to be 3x3, with only a handful of symbols, and a limited number of possible paylines (originally just the middle row). Thanks to advanced computer programming, more payline possibilities have begun to emerge, providing further chances to win as well as more variation over the standard, single-line payout.

But even with all the extra possibilities, for Australia-based gaming development studio, Big Time Gaming (BGT), this just wasn’t enough. So it developed an original gaming format, “Megaways”, which it first released with Dragon Born in 2015. It was only in 2016, though, that BGT’s innovations were truly noticed, because its title Bonanza hit the scene, and blew up in terms of popularity!

What does it mean?

The Megaways mechanic might sound a bit complicated at first, but it’s very simple. Instead of trying to programme different paylines into the structure of the game, this design has flipped this on its head by changing the number of symbols in each reel, per spin, without changing the reels.

To explain this further, every time you click “spin”, a different number of symbols will land on each reel, which naturally modifies the “paylines” you’ll get, as the wins are read from left to right. If you do the maths (by multiplying the number of symbols in each reel by each consecutive reel), it reveals there are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of possibilities (or “ways”) to win.

5 reasons we love Megaways slots

As you can imagine, with such an innovative format, there are many reasons to love these types of games, but we’ll outline just a handful of them below.

1. More ways to win

As we touched on above, when you play with this type of mechanic, there are just so many more ways to win! It might seem a bit mind-boggling at first, but since the number of symbols on each reel changes between 2 and 7 each time you spin, there are already so many more diverse possibilities than with your average casino slots game.

2. A completely different experience

Since there’s nothing static about the reels, this is a whole new type of gaming experience. Every game comes with its unique theme, features and bonus rounds, so you’re in for a thrilling experience every time you play. This definitely keeps things super interesting!

3. Exciting features

If you play casino games often, you’ll be pleased to know that the unpredictable mechanic isn’t the only thing to look forward to with these types of games. Other features that make this game design stand out are cascading reels: when you get a win, these symbols tumble down, making way for more winning combinations to come through!

Of course, there are also the usual free spins, as well as random wilds and even growing reels, which add even more room for the varying number of symbols per reel every time you spin.

4. Even more room for innovation

If the standout features of these types of games weren’t enough to get you going, wait… there’s more! This format has opened the doors to a lot more innovation in this arena, which means that apart from the impressive variety of games already available in this genre, there is even more to look forward to. This includes possible future games with more reels!

5. Other developers are getting on board

As you can imagine, the more people that play online casino games, the greater the demand for imaginative and innovative titles. For this reason, BGT has now licensed its software to other developers, so there is no cap on the kinds of games that you will continue to see being released, which suits us fans just fine!

What games can I play?

Now that you know all there is to know about these types of games, you’re probably wondering where to get started (if you haven’t already). As with any type of gaming genre, it’s all up to personal preference, but here are some of our favourites for you to try:

Genie Jackpots Megaways