Megaways is one of the most revolutionary mechanics to be added to online fruity machines in recent years. The technology was pioneered by a market-leading online casino software provider called Big Time Gaming (BTG), but when the technology first came out, it was nowhere near as popular as it is today.
I must admit, I actively seek out online fruit machines with the Megaways mechanics, and if I find a fruity that doesn’t have it, I wonder how long it will be until the software provider/studio who made that version might add it to that title.
On this page, I will explain exactly what a Megaways fruity is, and I will also reveal the names of more than ten of the most popular Megaways fruitys every player should know about in 2024.
Don’t forget that in most countries where real money gambling on licensed and regulated gambling sites is legally permitted, you only have to be 18 or older to play Megaways titles. However, in several Canadian provinces and US states, you will find that it’s 19 and 21, respectively.
What exactly are Megaways fruitys?
A megaways fruity is essentially an online fruit machine with the Megaways engine. It first appeared in ones released by Big Time Gaming from 2015 to 2017, and eventually became so popular that many other market-leading providers paid for the licensing rights to include it in their catalogue.
Today, there are well over 250 Megaways titles to choose from, and they are brought to you by over 30 different software providers. Megaways fruitys are basically the same as regular online fruitys, except in these ones, you never know exactly how many possible ways to win the next spin will provide.
It’s always random.
For example, the best megaways slots to play online today typically have 5 or 6 reels along the bottom in the usual place, which spin from top to bottom. They also tend to have an extra horizontal reel that spins from right to left above the bottom 5 or 6 reels.
Each reel usually displays two to five symbols stacked on top of each other when it has finished spinning, and each symbol can vary in height, measuring anywhere from two [large] symbols stacked on top of each other to three, four, five, six or seven [small] individual symbol positions high.
This means that when you hit the spin button, there can usually be anywhere as few as 243 different possible winning combinations (aka Megaways) up to around 117,649 megaways. In fact, some Megaways titles have been known to have up to 1,000,000 different possible winning combinations per spin.
When all possible winning combinations (aka max Megaways) are activated, and you land a winner, the payout can be huge. I’ve only seen this a few times, but even when the Max Megaways aren’t fully activated, the wins can still be fairly huge, especially when matching high-value symbols land.
In many of today’s most famous Megaways fruitys, when a winning combo forms, the winning symbols that are currently in view will immediately explode in a chain reaction and will then automatically be removed from the reels.
Each time this happens, the same number of symbols will drop/cascade/avalanche/tumble down from the top of the screen to fill the empty positions. The same free process will keep on occurring until there are no more new winning combinations in view.
5 ways Megaways fruitys are different from regular fruit machines
The easiest ways you can tell the difference between Megaways fruitys and all other online fruit machines that don’t have this popular technology are as follows:
- Megaways fruitys tend to have 5 or 6 regular reels + 1 upper horizontal reel
- Megaways fruitys have varying symbol lengths, usually allowing for up to 117,649 different ways to win per spin (but in some cases, up to 1 million)
- Megaways fruitys often have an exploding winning symbols feature that will keep on repeating for free until no more new wins are available (often with an increasing win multiplier that climbs by 1X or 2X after each successful Megaways win/cascade/tumble/avalanche has been awarded)
- Online fruit machines with the Megaways engine will typically ALWAYS have the word Megaways in the title
- Megaways fruitys are brought to you by the gambling industry’s most notable providers
I have to say that when I first played Megaways fruitys when they first started appearing online in 2015, I wasn’t too bothered. I like Big Time Gaming fruitys; I just wasn’t a big fan of their Megaways titles.
It wasn’t until other companies like Blueprint Gaming, Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Games Global, Playtech, Red Tiger Gaming, Light & Wonder, Fantasma Games, and Iron Dog Studios started releasing them that I became interested.
I now prefer playing Megaways fruitys and often avoid playing ones without this innovative technology, but you might not like Megaways. You might prefer less-complex fruitys, aka classic fruit machines.
They are often playable from as little as $/€/£0.10 or $/€/£0.20 per spin up to $/€/£10.00 to $/€/£20.00 per spin, but I tend to stick to between $/€/£0.50 and $/€/£2.50 per spin.
Final thoughts
If you want to see what all the fuss is and try a Megaways fruity on your smartphone or desktop computer, some of the most popular titles to try first include Blueprint Gaming’s The Goonies Megaways, Playtech’s Age of the Gods: King of Olympus Megaways, Games Global’s Mega Moolah Megaways, and iSoftBet’s Cleopatra Megaways.
Others include NetEnt’s Divine Fortune Megaways, Pragmatic Play’s Big Bass Hold & Spinner megaways, Red Tiger Gaming’s Gonzo’s Quest Megaways, Blueprint Gaming’s Diamond Mine 2 Megaways, and Games Global’s Ancient Fortunes Poseidon WowPot Megaways.