Every Megaways slot advertises the same number: 117,649 ways to win. It is on the banner, in the game title screen, and in every review. It is also, on most spins, wrong by a factor of sixteen.
Megaways is a slot engine, not a game. Big Time Gaming built it, patented it, and licenses it to other studios, which is why the same mechanic turns up on games from a dozen different names. What it does is simple: instead of fixed paylines, the number of symbols on each reel changes on every spin, and the number of ways to win changes with it.
This guide explains how the ways are counted, why the advertised maximum almost never appears, and the part the marketing leaves out: more ways does not mean more wins, and on a Megaways game it usually means fewer.
The short answer: A Megaways slot has six reels that each show between two and seven symbols. Multiply the six heights together and you get that spin’s ways. All six at seven gives 7 to the power of 6, which is 117,649. A normal spin lands nearer 7,000, and the ways count tells you nothing about your odds, which come from the paytable and the RTP.
What Megaways Actually Is
Big Time Gaming, an Australian studio founded in 2011, released the first game using the mechanic, Dragon Born, at the end of 2015. Bonanza followed and became the game that made the format famous. Megaways is trademarked and patented, so no other studio can build it independently. They license it, which is why you see the same trademark symbol on games from Pragmatic Play, Blueprint, Relax Gaming and others.
That licensing model is the reason the mechanic spread so fast. A studio does not have to invent a reel engine, it buys access to a proven one and puts its own art, paytable and features on top. It is also the reason quality varies so much between one Megaways title and the next: the engine is shared, the maths is not.
How the Ways Are Counted
A standard slot has fixed paylines. Twenty lines means twenty fixed paths across the reels, and a winning combination has to sit on one of them. Megaways removes the lines. Any symbol on reel one can pair with any matching symbol on reel two, and so on, as long as the run starts at the leftmost reel and continues without a gap.
So the number of ways is just the six reel heights multiplied together.
The formula: reel 1 × reel 2 × reel 3 × reel 4 × reel 5 × reel 6. Each reel shows 2 to 7 symbols. The lowest possible count is 2 to the power of 6, which is 64 ways. The highest is 7 to the power of 6, which is 117,649.
Why 117,649 Almost Never Happens
The advertised figure needs all six reels to land at their maximum height at the same time. Here is what the count looks like across four spins on the same game.
| The spin | Symbols on each reel | Ways that spin | Share of the advertised max |
|---|---|---|---|
| A flat spin | 2 × 3 × 2 × 4 × 3 × 2 | 288 | 0.2% |
| An ordinary spin | 4 × 5 × 3 × 6 × 4 × 5 | 7,200 | 6.1% |
| A tall spin | 6 × 6 × 7 × 5 × 7 × 6 | 52,920 | 45.0% |
| The advertised spin | 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 | 117,649 | 100% |
Drop one reel from seven symbols to four and the count falls by more than half, because the heights multiply rather than add. That is why the number on screen swings so violently between spins, and why the headline figure is a ceiling rather than a description of the game.
None of this is dishonest. The maximum is real and it does occur. It is just the least representative number the game could have chosen to advertise.
More Ways Does Not Mean More Wins
This is the part worth understanding before you play one. It is tempting to read 117,649 ways as 117,649 chances, and to assume a Megaways game must pay more often than a 20-line slot. The opposite is closer to the truth.
Two things cancel out the extra ways. First, the paytable is built around them: on a ways game the symbol values are set far lower than on a payline game, because so many more combinations qualify. Second, and more importantly, Megaways titles are overwhelmingly high volatility, and the maths deliberately pushes a large share of the total return into the free spins round rather than the base game.
The practical effect is a hit frequency in the base game that is often lower than a conventional slot, not higher. You get many small wins that return less than your stake, long stretches with nothing, and the real money concentrated in a bonus round you might not reach for hundreds of spins. In exchange, max wins are large: Megaways games commonly cap at 10,000 times the stake or more, where plenty of fixed-payline games top out in the low thousands.
That has a direct consequence for how you play one. A high volatility game with its return loaded into the bonus needs a longer session at a smaller stake before it behaves anything like the advertised maths. The same balance played at a high stake on a Megaways title will usually be gone before the free spins arrive, and the player will conclude the game is broken when they simply never reached the part that pays.
The Same Game, Different RTP
Megaways titles are among the worst offenders for something that affects every modern slot: a single game certified at several different RTP settings, with the casino choosing which one to run. It is common for a studio to certify the same title at something like 96.5%, 94% and 92% so that different operators and jurisdictions can pick a hold.
Bonanza, the game that made the format famous, runs at 96% in its standard configuration. That is a perfectly ordinary figure. The problem is not the number, it is that the identical game with the identical artwork can be paying 92% at the casino next door, and nothing on the lobby thumbnail tells you which you are opening.
Two and a half percentage points of RTP is worth vastly more to you than the difference between 117,649 ways and 7,200. The ways count is the number the game shouts. The RTP is the number that decides what happens to your balance, and it is in the game information panel, usually behind the “i” or the paytable button.
Check before you spin: Open the game information panel and read the RTP at the casino you are actually playing at, not from a review site. Review sites usually quote the studio’s highest certified configuration, which is frequently not the one running.
Which Studios Make Megaways Games
Big Time Gaming owns the mechanic and licenses it. Everyone else in this list is a licensee, building their own games on someone else’s engine.
| Studio | Role | What they bring to it |
|---|---|---|
| Big Time Gaming | Owner and licensor | Invented it. Bonanza, Extra Chilli, White Rabbit. Tends to pair it with unusual extras like feature buy-ins and reel modifiers |
| Blueprint Gaming | Licensee | The first licensee. Applies it to established brands and licensed IP rather than original themes |
| Pragmatic Play | Licensee | The highest volume of Megaways releases, usually as a variant of an existing hit rather than a new game |
| NetEnt | Licensee | Used it mainly to rebuild its own back catalogue, including a Megaways version of Gonzo’s Quest |
| Red Tiger | Licensee | Combines it with its own jackpot and multiplier systems |
| Relax Gaming | Licensee | Uses it sparingly, and tends toward the higher volatility end even by Megaways standards |
| ReelPlay and iSoftBet | Licensees | Smaller Megaways ranges, often built around a single signature mechanic layered on top |
The licensing point matters for one practical reason. A licence lets a studio use the reel engine. It does not commit them to a particular RTP, a particular volatility, or a particular quality of bonus round. Two games can both carry the Megaways trademark and be nothing alike in how they pay.
The Features That Usually Come With It
Megaways is only a reel engine. Most of what people think of as “a Megaways game” is a set of features that studios habitually attach to it.
- Cascading reels. Winning symbols are removed and new ones drop in, so one spin can produce several consecutive wins. This is where most base game value actually comes from, not from the ways count
- A horizontal reel. A row of extra symbols running above the six reels, feeding into reels two to five and pushing them to their full height
- An unlimited win multiplier in free spins. The multiplier climbs with each cascade and does not reset between spins in the bonus. This is the single feature responsible for most large Megaways wins
- A feature buy. Paying a fixed multiple of your stake to enter the bonus directly, where the casino and the jurisdiction allow it. Buys are banned in several regulated markets and often excluded from bonus play
That last point is worth checking against your bonus terms. Many casinos either bar feature buys entirely while a bonus is active or exclude them from wagering requirements, and using one anyway can void the bonus. Our guide on whether slots count toward wagering requirements covers how weighting is applied.
Megaways Compared to the Alternatives
Megaways was the first mechanic to make variable reel heights mainstream, and its success produced a wave of rivals. Studios that did not want to license it built their own: Nolimit City’s xWays and xNudge expand symbols instead of reels, and cluster pays formats drop the reel structure altogether and pay on groups of touching symbols.
Compared with a fixed-payline slot, Megaways trades a steady, frequent, small return for a rare, large one. Compared with cluster pays, it is more volatile and more dependent on its bonus round. Compared with Nolimit City‘s expanding-symbol games, it is generally gentler, though that gap has narrowed as licensees have pushed Megaways maths harder.
The honest summary is that the mechanic is a presentation choice more than a mathematical advantage. A well-built 20-line slot and a well-built Megaways slot at the same RTP will return the same amount over the long run. They will just feel completely different getting there.
Are Megaways Slots Fair?
The reel heights are set by the same random number generator that drives every other outcome in the game, and Megaways titles from licensed studios are tested by independent laboratories in the same way as any other slot. The mechanic does not create a new way to be cheated.
The licence that matters is the casino’s: A studio licence and a testing certificate say the game behaves as specified. Neither says anything about whether the operator will pay you. The casino’s own licence is what protects your withdrawal, which is why it is worth reading which casino licence is best before depositing anywhere new.
What the mechanic does create is a strong feeling of being cheated, because long dry runs punctuated by near misses are exactly what high volatility looks like from the inside. If that feeling is familiar, are online slots rigged goes through what is actually happening.
Should You Play Megaways?
It suits you if you enjoy a long build toward a big bonus round, you are comfortable with stretches of nothing, and you are staking small enough that a few hundred spins is realistic. It suits you badly if you have a short session, a small balance, or you want frequent small wins to keep a balance ticking over. In that case a lower volatility slot at the same RTP will do the job better.
If you do play them, the two decisions that actually move your odds are choosing a casino running the higher RTP configuration, and staking low enough to reach the feature the maths is built around. Neither has anything to do with 117,649. The casino list on this page shows operators that accept players from your country and carry games from these studios. The format is licensed to dozens of studios and carried unevenly, so casinos sorted by software tells you more than a game count, and the real money operators available in your country narrows it to what you can actually open.
Frequently Asked Questions
It means the game uses Big Time Gaming’s variable reel engine. Each of the six reels shows a different number of symbols on every spin, between two and seven, and the ways to win change with them. It is a reel format, not a bonus feature or a jackpot.
By multiplying the six reel heights together. When every reel shows its maximum of seven symbols, the sum is 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7 × 7, which is 117,649. Most spins land far below that, because dropping even one reel to four symbols cuts the total by more than half.
Usually less often in the base game. Megaways titles are built as high volatility games with a large share of the return concentrated in the free spins round, so base game hit frequency tends to be lower than a conventional payline slot, not higher. The extra ways are offset by much lower symbol values.
There is no single figure, and that is the important part. Most sit in a 94% to 96.5% band, but studios frequently certify the same title at several settings so operators can choose. Bonanza, the original, runs at 96% in its standard configuration. Always check the game information panel at the casino you are playing at.
Big Time Gaming, an Australian studio founded in 2011. Its first game using the mechanic, Dragon Born, launched at the end of 2015, and Bonanza made the format mainstream shortly afterwards.
Only licensees. The mechanic is patented and trademarked, so studios pay Big Time Gaming for access. Named licensees include Blueprint Gaming, Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Red Tiger, Relax Gaming, ReelPlay and iSoftBet, among others.
No. Dragon Born was first, at the end of 2015. Bonanza came after it and is the game most people associate with the format because it was the first to become a genuine hit.
Because the reel heights are part of the random outcome. The game does not spin fixed reels and then count lines, it decides how tall each reel is and which symbols land, and the ways figure is simply the result of multiplying those heights.
Almost always. The format is built around a free spins round with a climbing multiplier, and the maths pushes return into that round rather than the base game. Expect long stretches without a meaningful win, and size your stake for a long session rather than a short one.
It varies by title, but Megaways games commonly cap at 10,000 times the stake or higher, against a few thousand times on many fixed-payline games. The cap is stated in the game information panel and is worth checking, because reaching it is what the volatility is paying for.
Usually yes, and slots normally count 100% toward wagering. The thing to check is the feature buy: many casinos ban buying the bonus round while a bonus is active, or exclude those bets from wagering, and breaching either can void the bonus and the winnings.
Nothing changes the odds of a spin, since each one is independent and the RNG is fixed. The two decisions that do matter are choosing a casino running the higher RTP configuration of the game, and staking low enough that your balance survives long enough to reach the bonus round the maths is built around.
Megaways keeps reels and pays on runs of matching symbols from left to right, with the number of ways changing each spin. Cluster pays drops reels and paylines entirely, paying on groups of matching symbols touching anywhere on the grid. Cluster games are typically less dependent on a single bonus round.
No. Reel heights come from the same random number generator that determines every other outcome, and licensed studios have their games tested by independent laboratories. The mechanic feels harsh because it is high volatility, which is a design choice disclosed in the RTP and volatility rating, not a manipulation.
