Covers the studios that build for the big max win, and the Megaways and new-release rankings.
Updated
This page carries figures checked on the date above, and that window has now passed. Studios publish new RTP settings and casinos change their rules: re-check the sources at the foot of the page.
This is where Megaways started. Six reels that each show between 2 and 7 symbols, a horizontal reel across the top, and up to 117,649 ways to win on a single spin. Big Time Gaming's post for the game is dated December 2016, and a huge share of the slots released since have borrowed the engine.
The theme is a gold mine. Nobody plays it for the theme.
Spin Score: 7.9. The free spins round scores 9, the 26,000x max win scores 8.9, and the base game a solid 7. What holds it back is RTP. Big Time Gaming lists 96.0%, which scores 7.0 on our scale, the weakest factor in the game.
At a glance
Best for
Players who want a free spins round that builds and never resets
The catch
RTP is only 96%, and you need four letters to spell GOLD
Check first
The RTP in the info screen; Big Time Gaming and playin.com list different figures
Bonus buy
Varies by market; banned in the UK
Play instead if...
You want the same engine with a better RTP: Extra Chilli Megaways
Slots that share what makes Bonanza Megaways what it is, in Spin Score order, at most two per provider. Bonanza Megaways itself is scored in the spec sheet above. Spin Score = 40% RTP, 15% max win, 30% free spins round, 15% base game. How we score
Same studio, same engine, and the top of this list at 8.4. Two things lift it above Bonanza: a better RTP (96.3% per Big Time Gaming) and a much higher ceiling, 72,310x per playin.com. The Hot Seat gamble before free spins lets you risk your spin count for a shot at up to 50 spins with an unlimited multiplier and unlimited retriggers. It's a licensed game-show title, so availability depends on where you play.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%7.9
Max winData · 15%10.0
Free spins roundEditors · 30%9.0
Base gameEditors · 15%7.0
What it is: A licensed game-show Megaways slot with up to 117,649 ways and cascading wins. Before free spins you can gamble the spin count in the Hot Seat.
Free spins round: Hot Seat gamble lets you play up to 50 free spins, which carry an unlimited multiplier and unlimited retriggers.
Base game: Megaways with Dual Reaction cascades gives regular chain wins in the base game.
RTP, volatility and max win as Big Time Gaming publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
The closest thing to a better Bonanza. Big Time Gaming lists 96.41% at the top (96.15% also exists), which beats Bonanza's 96.0% and is the main reason it scores 8.3. A gamble wheel can push free spins up to 24, and the multiplier rises with every cascade, the same idea Bonanza made famous. Playin.com rates it a little less volatile, medium-high. Feature Drop, the bonus buy, isn't available in the UK.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%8.2
Max winData · 15%8.7
Free spins roundEditors · 30%9.0
Base gameEditors · 15%7.0
What it is: A Megaways slot with up to 117,649 ways and cascading wins, set in a Mexican market. Feature Drop lets you buy free spins, which carry an unlimited win multiplier.
Free spins round: Free spins come with a gamble wheel to raise the spin count up to 24, and an unlimited multiplier that rises with each cascade.
Base game: Cascades and the extra reel give frequent small chains in the base game.
RTP, volatility and max win as Big Time Gaming publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
Pragmatic Play's Megaways take on its dog-themed hit. The RTP factor is strong (96.55% at the top, with 95.53% and 94.55% versions), and you get a choice of two free spins rounds: sticky wilds with 2x or 3x multipliers, or more spins with up to six raining wilds per spin. No tumbles, though, so the base game only scores 5. Very high volatility. Bonus buy is 100x where permitted.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%8.6
Max winData · 15%7.6
Free spins roundEditors · 30%8.0
Base gameEditors · 15%5.0
What it is: A 6-reel Megaways slot with up to 117,649 ways. Wilds carry 2x or 3x multipliers, and three or more scatters open a choice between a Sticky Wilds and a Raining Wilds bonus.
Free spins round: A choice of two free spins rounds: sticky wilds with 2x or 3x multipliers, or more spins with up to six raining wilds per spin.
Base game: Wilds on reels 2-5 carry 2x or 3x multipliers, but there are no tumbles or random modifiers.
RTP, volatility and max win as Pragmatic Play publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
More ways than Bonanza (up to 200,704) and a 20,000x ceiling. The free spins round lets you pick between 15 to 23 spins with a starting multiplier of 1x, 5x or 10x, and each tumble win adds 1x. That's close to Bonanza's multiplier idea, but our editors score it 7 against 9. Pragmatic lists 96.5%; Bigwinboard and SlotCatalog give ranges, so the settings aren't certain. Very high volatility.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%8.5
Max winData · 15%8.4
Free spins roundEditors · 30%7.0
Base gameEditors · 15%5.0
What it is: A 6-reel Megaways slot with a top reel and up to 200,704 ways, using tumbling wins. Four to six scatters start free spins with a choice of spins and starting multiplier.
Free spins round: Pick between 15 to 23 free spins with 1x, 5x or 10x starting multipliers; each tumble win adds 1x, with unlimited retriggers.
Base game: Tumbles give chain wins but there are no other base game modifiers.
RTP, volatility and max win as Pragmatic Play publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
A smaller Megaways grid, 6x6 with up to 46,656 ways, where tumbling wins break stone blocks to open more of the grid. That makes the base game livelier than most, a 7. Free spins offer three modes: extra spins, multipliers with extra spins, or bigger multipliers alone. It ranks fifth on a 7,767x ceiling and a 96.25% RTP per slotcatalog, with a 90% German setting and a UK game ID suggesting 92%.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%7.8
Max winData · 15%6.8
Free spins roundEditors · 30%7.0
Base gameEditors · 15%7.0
What it is: A 6x6 Megaways slot with up to 46,656 ways. Wins tumble and break blocks to open more of the grid, and free spins offer three mode choices.
Free spins round: Free spins let you pick one of three modes: extra spins, multipliers with extra spins, or bigger multipliers alone.
Base game: Tumbling wins break stone blocks and open up more ways in the base game.
RTP, volatility and max win as Relax Gaming publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
Red Tiger's Megaways version of a NetEnt classic. Avalanches raise a base-game multiplier up to x5, and the random Earthquake clears low symbols. In Free Fall spins the multiplier climbs x3, x6, x9, x15 on consecutive wins. It ranks last on RTP: Red Tiger lists 95.77%, the lowest here, and operators may run less. Bigwinboard lists different figures (96.0% and 94.66%, 21,000x); we use the provider's.
How the score breaks down, and the fine print
Return to playerData · 40%6.3
Max winData · 15%8.5
Free spins roundEditors · 30%8.0
Base gameEditors · 15%7.0
What it is: A 6-reel Megaways version of Gonzo's Quest with up to 117,649 ways. Avalanches raise a win multiplier, and Free Fall symbols trigger free spins with a higher multiplier ladder.
Free spins round: Free Fall spins where the avalanche multiplier climbs x3, x6, x9, x15 on consecutive wins, with retriggers from more Free Fall symbols.
Base game: Avalanches with a multiplier up to x5, plus the random Earthquake that clears low symbols, keep the base game busy.
RTP, volatility and max win as Red Tiger publishes them, checked on November 3, 2026. A casino may run a lower RTP setting: check the game’s info screen.
Demo buttons open the free-play version on the game studio’s own site: no deposit, no account. We are not paid for them. How we make money
How Bonanza Megaways plays
Every spin, each of the six reels picks a height from 2 to 7 symbols. Multiply the heights together and you get the number of ways for that spin, up to 117,649. A horizontal reel across the top adds extra symbols on top of that.
Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, then the winning symbols explode and new ones fall in. Big Time Gaming calls this Dual Reaction. A single spin can chain several wins, which is why the base game gets a 7 from our editors.
Playin.com puts the hit frequency at 37.94%. So a bit more than one spin in three returns something, and most of those returns are smaller than the bet. Playin.com rates volatility 7.4 out of 10, which we class as high.
The reel heights are random, so you'll see spins with a few hundred ways and spins with tens of thousands. It looks like more is happening than really is.
The free spins round: spelling GOLD
Spell GOLD with the letter symbols to start 12 free spins.
Then the multiplier. It starts at 1x and rises by 1 on every cascade, and it never resets during the round. Not after a dead spin, not after a retrigger. A cascade on spin two still counts on spin twelve. That's the whole reason our editors give the round a 9. Most tumble games either reset the multiplier every spin or cap it; this one does neither.
Retriggers are possible, and they add spins to a round where the multiplier is already built up. That's where the 26,000x ceiling comes from.
Short rounds with few cascades pay little, and the GOLD requirement means the round can take a long time to arrive. Both of those are normal for a high-volatility slot. Budget for it.
RTP, the bonus buy and what to check
Big Time Gaming's game page lists 96.0%, and that's what our score uses. Playin.com, the Evolution-run studio site for Big Time Gaming, shows 96.11%. The two figures don't match, and we haven't found a clean list of alternative settings, so read the number in the game's info screen at your casino.
96% is fine. It isn't great. It's the reason this game scores below Extra Chilli and Millionaire Megaways, which come from the same studio with better published RTPs.
The bonus buy depends on the market and is banned in the UK. Our record doesn't hold a reliable buy price, so we're not quoting one. My advice is the same as on every buy page: it shortens the wait, not the odds, and it drains a budget much faster. Every slot has a negative expected value, and a 96% one keeps four cents of every dollar staked, on average, over the long run.
Not on our numbers. Two later Big Time Gaming games beat it. Extra Chilli Megaways (8.3) keeps the cascading multiplier idea and adds a better RTP. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Megaways (8.4) adds a higher RTP and a far bigger ceiling.
But it's close. Bonanza's free spins round scores the same 9 as both of them, and a 0.4 gap mostly comes from RTP. If you've played the newer ones and still prefer the simple GOLD round, that's a perfectly reasonable choice.
What I would skip is the endless list of licensed Megaways reskins that copy the look without the never-resetting multiplier. Our Megaways ranking sorts them.
Who it suits, and what to play instead
Bonanza Megaways suits players who like a busy base game and a free spins round that builds over time, and who can sit through stretches without the four letters. It doesn't suit a tiny budget looking for frequent bonuses.
The six slots ranked below are all Megaways, from the two Big Time Gaming siblings that beat it down to Gonzo's Quest's Megaways version. Our Big Time Gaming page covers the studio, and tumble slots goes wider on cascades.
Try it in demo mode first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the RTP of Bonanza Megaways?
Big Time Gaming lists 96.0%. Playin.com, the studio's Evolution-run site, shows 96.11%. Check the info screen at your casino for the version it runs.
What is the max win on Bonanza Megaways?
26,000x the bet, per playin.com. It's a theoretical ceiling, reached only in a tiny share of free spins rounds.
How do you get free spins on Bonanza Megaways?
Spell GOLD with the four letter symbols to get 12 free spins. The multiplier rises by 1 on every cascade and doesn't reset during the round.
Was Bonanza the first Megaways slot?
Yes. Big Time Gaming built the Megaways engine and Bonanza was the first game to use it. Its game post is dated December 2016.
Can you buy the bonus on Bonanza Megaways?
In some markets. Bonus buy availability varies by country and it's banned in the UK. Buying doesn't improve the odds.
How many ways are there in Bonanza Megaways?
Up to 117,649 per spin. Each of six reels shows 2 to 7 symbols, and a horizontal top reel adds more.
Further reading
Official sources
Big Time Gaming: Bonanza– RTP 96.0%, 117,649 ways, post date December 2016, features, checked November 3, 2026
Playin.com: Bonanza– Volatility 7.4/10, max payout 26,000x, hit frequency 37.94%, RTP shown as 96.11%, checked November 3, 2026
