Where the engine came from
Big Time Gaming introduced Megaways in 2015 with Dragon Born, a six-reel game where each reel showed a random number of symbols. Bonanza followed in 2016 and turned the format into a genre: cascading wins, a horizontal reel above reels two to five, and a free spin multiplier that rose by one with every reaction and never reset. Extra Chilli arrived after with the same bones plus a gamble wheel and Feature Drop, the first widely played way to buy the bonus.
For its first years the engine was Big Time Gaming's alone. From 2018 the studio began licensing it. Blueprint Gaming was among the first partners and built a long series, Buffalo Rising Megaways among them. Red Tiger rebuilt NetEnt classics on the engine, Pragmatic Play brought its own brands over from 2019 with The Dog House Megaways and Madame Destiny Megaways, and BGaming used the reels for book-style expanding-symbol games such as Book Of Cats Megaways and Book of Panda Megaways.
The licence spread the reels, not the rules. That is why Magaway Slots lists the free spin engine beside every title: unlimited multiplier, stepped multiplier, expanding symbol, sticky wild, each one a studio's own choice.
The engine in one paragraph
Six reels, each dealt two to seven symbols per spin. Ways to win equal the six heights multiplied together: 64 at the floor, 117,649 at the ceiling. Matching symbols on adjacent reels from the left pay in any row, and a symbol repeated on one reel counts once for each copy. Wins cascade: paid symbols vanish, new ones fall in, and the check runs again until nothing new pays.
Studios on the licence
Studio | On the engine since | Titles at Magaway Slots | What they add |
Big Time Gaming | 2015, creator | Bonanza, Extra Chilli | Unlimited multiplier, top reel, Feature Drop |
Blueprint Gaming | 2018 | Buffalo Rising Megaways | Mystery symbols, buy option |
Red Tiger | 2019 | Piggy Riches Megaways, Gonzo's Quest Megaways | NetEnt classics rebuilt |
Pragmatic Play | 2019 | The Dog House Megaways, Madame Destiny Megaways, Extra Juicy Megaways | Own brands, 100x buy |
BGaming | 2020s | Book Of Cats Megaways, Book of Panda Megaways | Expanding symbols on tall reels |
Megaways and the other growing-reel formats
Megaways changes reel height. Two other formats change the number of reels, and players mix them up. Infinity Reels, made by ReelPlay, starts with three reels and adds a new one to the right after every win, with no upper limit and a bonus prize for reaching twelve added reels. InfiniReels is NetEnt's own version of the same idea, seen in Gods of Gold InfiniReels. Both feel like Megaways in motion and are not Megaways: the licence, the ways maths and the cascade multiplier are different.
Big Time Gaming has also built engines of its own beyond Megaways, among them Megaclusters, which adds a splitting-symbol cluster grid, and Megaquads. Magaway Slots keeps those on a separate shelf so the Megaways lobby stays what its name says.
Format | What changes per spin | Ceiling | Owner |
Megaways | Reel height, two to seven | 117,649 ways | Big Time Gaming, licensed |
Infinity Reels | Number of reels, grows on wins | No limit, 888x bonus at twelve added reels | ReelPlay |
InfiniReels | Number of reels, grows on wins | No limit | NetEnt |
Bonanza's free spins, step by step
The round that defined the engine is worth walking through, because every licensee's bonus is a variation on it. Four scatter letters, G, O, L and D, must appear anywhere on the reels, top reel included. That awards twelve free spins; a fifth letter adds five more. The multiplier starts at 1x. On each free spin, any win is paid at the current multiplier, the winning symbols are removed, new symbols cascade in, and if a new win forms the multiplier rises by one before that win is paid. The chain continues until a cascade produces no win, and the multiplier stays where it stopped for the next free spin. Three more scatters during the round add five spins. There is no cap. A round that produces twenty reactions ends at 21x, and it is that absence of a cap, more than the 117,649 ways, that players mean when they say Megaways.
What a licensee may change
The licence fixes the reel mechanism and leaves the rest open, and each partner has used the freedom differently.
- Cascades. Kept by nearly everyone. A few book-style titles run cascades in the base game only.
- Multiplier. Unlimited in Bonanza and Extra Chilli; capped, stepped or replaced by multiplier wilds in many licensed titles. Madame Destiny Megaways uses a progressive free spin multiplier of its own design.
- Top reel. Present in Bonanza and its closest relatives; absent in most book-style Megaways games.
- Trigger. Four scatter letters in Bonanza; three or four ordinary scatters in most licensed games.
- Feature buy. Feature Drop in Extra Chilli; a flat 100x in Pragmatic Play titles; a buy button in Blueprint games; none in Bonanza.
- Reel strips and RTP. Each studio's own, with several RTP versions in Pragmatic Play's case. The in-game panel shows the version running at Magaway Slots.
The lobby, game by game
Bonanza (Big Time Gaming, 2016)
Top reel, cascades, unlimited multiplier, RTP 96%. The reference point for the whole engine and the first game most players open at Magaway Slots.
Extra Chilli (Big Time Gaming)
Same structure with a gamble wheel that can add free spins and Feature Drop that lowers the buy price spin by spin from 50x. RTP 96.82%.
Buffalo Rising Megaways (Blueprint Gaming)
Mystery symbols in the base game, cascades and an unlimited free spin multiplier. RTP 96.5%, and a buy option where permitted.
Piggy Riches Megaways and Gonzo's Quest Megaways (Red Tiger)
Two NetEnt classics rebuilt with cascades intact: multiplier wilds in the former, the avalanche multiplier ladder in the latter.
The Dog House Megaways, Madame Destiny Megaways, Extra Juicy Megaways (Pragmatic Play)
Three Pragmatic Play brands on the engine, each with the 100x buy. The Dog House Megaways offers sticky or raining wilds, Madame Destiny Megaways a progressive multiplier, Extra Juicy Megaways multiplier wilds.
Book Of Cats Megaways and Book of Panda Megaways (BGaming)
Expanding-symbol free spins on reels that change height. No cascade multiplier; the expanding symbol on a seven-high reel is the big-win route.
Loyalty and support at Magaway Slots
Loyalty points accrue on real-money turnover across the Megaways lobby at the rate published on the promotions page, and cashback, where offered, is calculated on net losses over the stated period with its own terms alongside. Neither changes a game's RTP. The help centre is arranged by studio and by topic, and the support team is reached by chat or contact form from the account menu; account matters are handled only with the verified holder, and a limit reduction or self-exclusion is applied immediately.
Notable releases, by year
- 2015. Dragon Born, the first Megaways slot.
- 2016. Bonanza, the game that defined the cascade-and-multiplier format.
- 2018. Extra Chilli and the first licensed titles from Blueprint Gaming.
- 2019. Red Tiger and Pragmatic Play join; Piggy Riches Megaways and The Dog House Megaways.
- 2020 onward. Book-style Megaways from BGaming, Madame Destiny Megaways and Extra Juicy Megaways from Pragmatic Play, Buffalo Rising Megaways from Blueprint.
The licence is still active and new Megaways titles arrive most months, usually from studios already on the list. What has changed since the early years is the bonus: the unlimited multiplier that defined 2016 is now one option among several, and a new release is as likely to pair the reels with sticky wilds, expanding symbols or a hold and win round as with a cascade counter. Magaway Slots dates each new game and shelves it by the bonus it actually uses, so the timeline stays a guide to behaviour rather than a list of names.
Choosing by year, not by name
The timeline is not decoration; it is a way to choose. The 2016 original and its closest relatives are the highest-variance games in the lobby, because the unlimited multiplier concentrates the return into a rare round. The 2018 and 2019 licensed titles are where studios first experimented with caps and stepped multipliers, and they sit in the middle. The 2020s book-style titles from BGaming are the gentlest, with a frequent bonus and no multiplier to chase. A player with a hundred stakes starts at the end of the timeline; a player with five hundred can start at the beginning.
The same applies to feature buy. The original had none, Extra Chilli introduced Feature Drop, and the licensed titles from 2019 onward use a fixed 100x. Reading a game's year at Magaway Slots tells you roughly how it will behave before the paytable does.
Playing at Magaway Slots
Bonuses
Each promotion is shown with its wagering requirement, game weighting and maximum stake per spin while active. Megaways games count in full unless the offer page says otherwise. Free spin awards are attached to a named title at a fixed stake, and their winnings carry the same wagering as the offer.
Cashier
Accounts run in EUR. Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly and paysafecard fund the balance; withdrawals return to cards, e-wallets or bank transfer, and e-wallets are released first after verification. Identity and address are confirmed before a first payout.
Phone
No app. The lobby and every game run in a phone browser in portrait, with the ways counter above the reels and stake controls behind a menu icon. Balance, bonus progress and limits follow the login.
Safer play
Magaway Slots is for adults of legal gambling age. Deposit limits, loss limits, session reminders, time-outs and self-exclusion are in account settings. Unlimited-multiplier games run long without a trigger; set the limit for that. Free, independent help is available from Gamblers Anonymous (https://www.gamblersanonymous.org).
Frequently asked questions
Who invented Megaways?
Big Time Gaming, in 2015, with Dragon Born. Bonanza in 2016 made the format famous.
Are licensed Megaways games the same as Big Time Gaming's?
Same reels and ways maths. Bonus rules, multipliers and RTP are each studio's own.
Is Infinity Reels a type of Megaways?
No. Infinity Reels adds reels on wins and belongs to ReelPlay; Megaways changes reel height and belongs to Big Time Gaming.
Can I play the whole timeline in demo?
Every game in the lobby has a demo mode that needs no account.
Which currency does Magaway Slots use?
EUR for all accounts and payments.
Does every Megaways game have the unlimited multiplier?
No. Bonanza, Extra Chilli and Buffalo Rising Megaways do. Many licensed titles cap it, step it, or use multiplier wilds instead.
What is Feature Drop?
Big Time Gaming's buy mechanic in Extra Chilli: the price of the free spins starts at 50x and falls as certain symbols land, until you choose to buy or trigger the round naturally.
Start with Bonanza to see the original, then open a licensed title from the same year and compare the bonus rules. Magaway Slots adds each new Megaways release to the timeline as it ships.
