27Fishin' Frenzy
9Gates of Olympus
9Sweet Bonanza
6Sugar Rush
284Megaways
249Jackpot
27Bell Link
77Dice
433Animal
377Asian
270Egyptian
320Horror
206Christmas
160Adventure
154Fishing
167Gems & Diamonds
127Dragon
125Irish
118Gods & Mythology
215Magic
93Joker
76Wild West
130Pirate
54Book of
64Aztec
48Vegas
38Buffalo
24Viking
38Space
This is the game that invented Megaways. Every Megaways title you have ever played — Great Rhino, Buffalo King, Piggy Riches, Ted, Wolf Legend — is running a mechanic licensed from this slot, released by Big Time Gaming in December 2016.
It still holds up. 117,649 ways, cascading reels, a 96% RTP, high volatility and a 26,000× ceiling. The free-spins multiplier is unlimited and rises by one with every cascade, which is the single idea the entire genre was built on.
- Free Demo
- At a Glance
- How It Plays
- Paytable
- Features
- Compare
- RTP & Max Win
- Bets & Bankroll
- Tips
- Where to Play
- FAQ
- Verdict
Play the Bonanza demo free
The demo below runs the full game on play credits. If you have played Megaways games without ever playing this one, it is worth a session purely to see the mechanic in its original form — the carriage reel, the dynamite scatters and the uncapped multiplier are all here without the extra layers later studios bolted on. This demo is part of our collection of free Big Time Gaming demos.
Bonanza slot at a glance
More on the figures above. Figures from the game’s own information screen, cross-checked against SlotCatalog. The page notes that Bonanza has RTP ranges, meaning more than one certified build is in circulation and the operator chooses — the specific alternative values are not published, so only the headline 96% is printed here. No hit frequency is published by the studio. Note that Bonanza is also the name of several unrelated games, including Pragmatic’s entire Big Bass Bonanza and Sweet Bonanza families; this is the Big Time Gaming original from 2016.
How the game plays
Six reels, each showing between two and seven symbols, plus a four-symbol horizontal carriage reel running above reels two to five. The reel heights are redrawn on every spin, so the number of ways changes each time — from a few hundred up to 117,649.
Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, and winning symbols are removed and replaced by the ones above. That is the cascade, and it continues as long as new wins keep forming. In the base game the cascades simply chain; there is no multiplier attached.
In free spins the multiplier is the whole game. It starts at 1× and rises by one with every cascade, with no ceiling. It does not reset between spins — it carries for the entire round. A long free-spins round therefore gets exponentially more valuable as it goes, which is why Bonanza’s ceiling sits at 26,000× without any jackpot or buy mechanic propping it up.
The round is triggered by gold bar scatters, which can land on the carriage reel as well as the main six. Four trigger the round; additional scatters extend it.
The story behind the game
Released 7 December 2016, and it changed the industry.
Before Bonanza, a slot had a fixed number of paylines or ways. Big Time Gaming’s idea — variable reel heights redrawn on every spin — produced a board that could show 117,649 ways at its widest, a number that became the genre’s signature. BTG then licensed the mechanic to other studios, and within five years Megaways editions existed of nearly every well-known slot.
On this site alone you can see the spread: Great Rhino Megaways and Buffalo King Megaways and Madame Destiny Megaways from Pragmatic, Piggy Riches Megaways from Red Tiger, Wheel of Fortune Megaways from IGT, Wild Turkey Megaways from NetEnt, and Ted Megaways, Wolf Legend Megaways and Mighty Griffin Megaways from Blueprint. All of them are descendants of this game.
Big Time Gaming’s own follow-ups kept pushing: Gold Megaways (96.42%, 20,200×) is the one reviewed here.
Symbols and paytable
Big Time Gaming publishes the full values on the in-game information screen. What follows is what makes the board behave the way it does.
| The variable reel heights | Each of the six reels shows two to seven symbols, redrawn every spin. A spin showing seven on all six reels gives 7⁶ = 117,649 ways; a spin showing two gives 64. The number of ways is therefore a property of the spin, not of the game. |
|---|---|
| The carriage reel | A four-symbol horizontal reel above reels two to five. Its symbols count as part of those reels, which is how the board reaches its widest counts — and gold bar scatters can land there too. |
| The gold bar scatters | Trigger the free spins. They can land on the carriage reel as well as the main six, which makes the trigger a little more reachable than it looks. |
| The cascade — and the multiplier it feeds | Winning symbols are removed and replaced from above. In the base game cascades just chain. In free spins, each cascade adds one to the multiplier, with no cap and no reset between spins. That one rule is the whole genre. |
The thing to understand about Megaways, and the reason the mechanic spread so far, is that the two halves reinforce each other. A wide board makes cascades likely; cascades raise the multiplier; the raised multiplier makes the next wide board worth more. Bonanza is where that loop was first assembled.
Bonus features and free spins
117,649 Megaways, redrawn every spin
Six reels of two to seven symbols, plus the carriage reel. The widest possible board gives 117,649 ways. The number changes on every single spin, which is why no two spins of a Megaways game look alike.
Cascading reels
Winning symbols are removed and replaced from above, and the chain continues as long as new wins form. In the base game this is simply free extra chances; in free spins it is the engine of the multiplier.
The unlimited free-spins multiplier
Starts at 1× and rises by one with every cascade, with no ceiling. Critically, it does not reset between spins — it carries for the whole round. This is the single most copied idea in modern slot design.
Gold bar scatters, carriage reel included
Four scatters trigger free spins and extra scatters extend the round. Because they can land on the horizontal carriage reel as well as the six main reels, the trigger has more places to come from than a conventional six-reel game.
- It is the original. Every Megaways game on this site runs a mechanic licensed from this one, and the unlayered version is still the cleanest expression of it.
- An uncapped free-spins multiplier that never resets is more generous than most of its descendants, many of which cap the multiplier or reset it each spin.
- 26,000× remains a high ceiling nine years on, and it is reached without a buy feature or a jackpot propping it up.
- 96% RTP is solid, and the game has no ante bet or bonus bet quietly eroding it.
- No bonus buy. On a high-volatility game where everything lives in free spins, the absence of a buy option is felt — most newer Megaways titles have one.
- No published hit frequency, which on a game this volatile is the figure you would most want.
- RTP ranges exist but are not published. The studio confirms more than one build is in circulation and does not say what the others are.
- The base game is plain by modern standards: cascades with no multiplier, no modifiers, no random features. Nine years of genre inflation have left it looking spare.
How Bonanza compares
Against the Megaways descendants reviewed on this site, the original sits mid-table on RTP and near the top on ceiling — which is a fair summary of how well it has aged.
| Game | Studio | RTP | Volatility | Max win | Ways |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonanza | Big Time Gaming | 96% | High | 26,000× | 117,649 |
| Gold Megaways | Big Time Gaming | 96.42% | High | 20,200× | 117,649 |
| Wheel of Fortune Megaways | IGT | 96.46% | High | 80,150× | 117,649 |
| Great Rhino Megaways | Pragmatic Play | 96.58% | High (5/5) | 20,000× | 200,704 |
| Piggy Riches Megaways | Red Tiger Gaming | 95.71% | High | 10,474× | 117,649 |
The descendants mostly carry a slightly higher RTP, which is what you would expect from games competing against an established original. On ceiling, only Wheel of Fortune Megaways clears it by a distance. Great Rhino Megaways reaches a wider 200,704 ways by adding a horizontal bonus reel of its own — a direct extension of Bonanza’s carriage-reel idea.
Bonanza RTP, volatility and max win
The published figure is 96%, which is a touch below the modern video-slot average but entirely normal for 2016 and perfectly respectable now.
The game has RTP ranges — more than one certified build is in circulation and the operator chooses — but Big Time Gaming does not publish the alternative values, so there is no way to tell you how far down they go. The running figure is on the information screen, and on a game this old, in this many lobbies, it is genuinely worth checking.
The high volatility rating is as you would expect for a game whose entire top end sits inside an uncapped multiplier. No hit frequency is published, which is the one number that would tell you how long the base game makes you wait. What can be said structurally is that the cascades give the base game more chances per spin than a conventional six-reel slot, so paying spins are not as rare as the volatility label alone suggests — they are just small until the multiplier gets going.
Bets, bankroll and session planning
Big Time Gaming sets the range per operator and the studio publishes no single span.
There is no bonus buy and no ante bet. Nine years ago that was unremarkable; today it stands out, because it means the only way into free spins is to land four gold bars. On a high-volatility game where the multiplier is everything, that is a real constraint — and the reason some players prefer the descendants.
The upside is that there is no mechanism quietly reducing your RTP in exchange for convenience. What you stake is what you stake, and the 96% applies to all of it.
Playing on mobile
Runs in the browser on a phone with no download and no app. Six variable-height reels plus a carriage reel is a lot of board for a small screen, and in portrait the symbols get small when all six reels run at seven high. It remains playable — BTG rebuilt the game for mobile years ago — but this is one case where a larger screen genuinely shows you more.
Five things to know before you spin
- Check the RTP on the information screen. The studio confirms multiple builds exist and does not publish what the lower ones are.
- Watch the multiplier, not the spin count. It never resets during the round, so a long free-spins round is worth far more at the end than the start — the last few spins carry all the value.
- Scatters can land on the carriage reel. It is easy to watch only the six main reels and miss where the trigger is coming from.
- There is no bonus buy. If you want to reach Megaways free spins on demand, Wolf Legend Megaways has a buy at 75× and Ted Megaways has one outside the UK.
- Do not confuse it with the Bonanza name elsewhere. Big Bass Bonanza and Sweet Bonanza are Pragmatic games with nothing to do with this one.
Where to play Bonanza for real money
The demo on this page needs no account and no deposit. If you move to real money, read the RTP off the information screen — this game has multiple certified builds and the studio does not publish the lower ones.
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Who this slot is for
Anyone who plays Megaways games should play this one at least once. It is the source, and the uncapped, non-resetting multiplier is more generous than a good number of the titles that copied it. For a player who likes long free-spins rounds that build, there is still nothing wrong with it.
It suits you less if you have grown used to modern conveniences. No buy, no ante, no modifiers, no random base-game features — this is a 2016 game and it plays like one. If you want the same mechanic with a way in, Wolf Legend Megaways sells its bonus at 75×; if you want a bigger ceiling, Wheel of Fortune Megaways reaches 80,150×.
Bonanza demo and slot FAQ
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Our verdict on Bonanza
Nine years on, the original is still one of the best
It would be easy to review this as a historical artefact. It is not one. The uncapped free-spins multiplier that never resets between spins is more generous than what several of its descendants shipped, and 26,000× is a ceiling plenty of 2026 releases do not reach. At 96% with no ante bet and no buy quietly taxing the return, what you see is what you get.
Its age shows in what is missing rather than what is there. No buy feature on a game where everything lives in the bonus is a real constraint, the base game has no modifiers or random features, and the studio publishes neither a hit frequency nor the lower RTP builds it admits exist.
Play it. If you have put hours into Megaways games made by other studios, an hour on this one is genuinely clarifying — the mechanic is cleaner here than in most of what followed. Then, if you want a way into the bonus on demand, Wolf Legend Megaways sells one at 75× your stake.
Similar Big Time Gaming slots
Megaways games reviewed here, including Big Time Gaming’s own follow-up and the licensees.
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