Top 5 High Volatility Slots 2023

Top 5 High Volatility Slots of 2023: How about Game Variance? Let us explain… A large factor in the amounts paid out by a slot game is the variance, or volatility. This refers to how often a game will pay out the jackpot as well as size of the payout. There are three general categories of variance: 

Low variance

  • These games will pay out frequently, but almost never in large amounts.

Medium variance

  • These games pay out less frequently, but the prizes are a combination of smaller and larger payouts.

High variance

  • These games pay out very rarely. When these games do pay out, they pay out massively.

Game variance is usually not advertised by the operator, but that does not mean it is impossible to find. Most well-known videoslots have been reviewed online. Even when they have not been formally reviewed, there are forums talking about these games. These are often independently hosted, but they might also be located on established forum platforms such as Reddit. A general rule to follow about variance is: the bigger the jackpot, the higher the variance.

When a game pays out often at a high percentage, it is referred to as “loose”. When a game is the opposite and pays out rarely with small amounts, it can be referred to as “tight”. Many casinos and websites will refer to their own games as “loose” in their advertisements. Now we’ll examine a few volatile slot games. But first, check out one of our Online Casino Favourites:

Different payment methods

Wide range of games

24/7 live chat customer service

No sports betting offer

Bonus
9.0
5/5

1. Reactoonz High Volatility Slot

4.6/5
9.2

Reactoonz is an online slot developed by Play’n GO. It is something of an unofficial sequel to the video slot Energoonz, which has been one of their popular titles for a while now. Play’n GO is known for slots with a distinct game mechanics, where symbols can cause chain reactions and bonus features can be unlocked. Also notable is the variance. Although Reactoonz may look a bit juvenile, it’s got great rewards. And not even with the main bonus feature, the Giant Gargantoon, but with the mini features as well. Reactoonz is not a slot machine that you just boot up and get right away. It takes a few spins to understand how everything works. The sounds, bright colours and frantic animations don’t really help either. Chances are you’ll soon find yourself getting dizzy.Our advice: push through. This his is one of the most fun – and lucrative – releases of 2017, and has held strong ever since. 

The game is played on a matrix of 7 x 7 symbols. That means 49 squares on which symbols will appear. The symbols consist of roguish space creatures and the occasional wild symbol. Winning combinations occur when 5 or more of the same symbols touch each other. NetEnt calls this Cluster Pays, which is also used in Emoji Planet and Legend of Shangri-La. The more the same symbols touch, the higher the payout. Winning combinations disappear and make way for new symbols, so you can win multiple in a row. If there is a 2 x 2 symbol in a winning combination, the payout is doubled. The betting range runs from 0.20 to 100 euros per spin and the payout percentage is a fine 96.52%. On every spin, 1 special symbol is designated, which lights up. Every time a winning combination is created with this special symbol, it leaves 2 wilds. This increases the chances of new winning combos. If you look at the top right, you will see a big white monster with 3 eyes. Keep an eye on him. After all, this is your best friend in the game, the Gargantoon. This white behemoth can trigger special features for you. For that, you’ll have to fill the meter by making winning combinations. For every full meter, 1 of the 4 boosters is activated at random.

These boosters are essential for landing big payouts.

  • Alteration: 1 random symbol is changed into another symbol – often worth nothing, and sometimes extremely valuable.
  • Implosion: without a doubt the booster: 3 to 6 random symbols are turned into wilds and all surrounding symbols are removed.
  • Demolition: all low symbols are removed, causing premium symbols to fall down.
  • Incision: a powerful booster, where a wild symbol and two diagonal rows of the same symbols are placed on the screen. Very powerful, especially if the rows are filled with wilds.

The Gargantoon can also put between 4 and 8 wilds on the screen after a non-winning spin, the Instability Feature. Once you have filled all 5 gauges, our big friend the Gargantoon really jumps into action. He appears on the screen as 3 x 3 wilds, then as 2 x 2 wilds and finally with 9 loose wilds. It’s a kind of wild mayhem, with winning combinations and big prizes everywhere. A delightful feature that really feels like the crowning achievement for your hard work. Although sometimes it can also be a big curse if you get stuck at 4 full meters and don’t manage to get the 5th meter full. When 5 the metres are filled, it’s party time. This is because now the super powerful Gargantoon Feature is added to the queue. This Gargantoon Feature creates quite a few extra wilds on the screen. First, a 3 x 3 wild symbol appears on the screen, then a 2 x 2 wild and then nine single wilds. It can take some time to get used to this slot machine from Play’n GO. Reactoonz is quite busy, looks a bit childish perhaps, and is quite complicated.

If you lose a couple of times and your balance starts shrinking, you might cut your losses and play something else. Once you get used to this game, it’ll show it’s worth. But be warned: Reactoonz can be hugely erratic and sometimes has long dry spells. So make sure your balance is high enough and don’t bet too high.

2. Black Gold 2 Megaways High Volatility

This is an extremely big Megaways slot from Stakelogic. Stakelogic was once known as the provider that only made good but simple online slot machines and some silly video slots. But that was then. Stakelogic has since developed into a top provider, with a wide variety of slots, unique feature and very high production values. With Black Gold 2 Megaways, they seem to have completely thrown off all shyness and have created a slot brimming with features, humour and hefty potential. Exactly how much you can win on this slot is unknown, but it is safe to assume that, with a good dose of luck, you can end a session as a rich oil baron. The many wild features, progressive multipliers and Megaways will make sure of that. Black Gold 2 Megaways has the standard Megaways slot setup: 6 reels (divided into two sets), up to 7 symbols high and up to 117,649 Megaways.

Winning symbols disappear and make way for new ones. Bets start from 0.20 euros and go up to 40 euros per spin. Variance is high and the theoretical payout percentage is 96.01%. Premium symbols consist of lanterns, miner’s helmets, donkeys and oil barons. These pay between 1.5x and 50x the bet when six are the same. There is also another wild symbol: the dynamite. This substitutes for all symbols except the scatters. The low symbols consist of the card symbols 10 to ace. To keep the game nice and varied, you can win many different mystery features: extra wilds, stacked wilds, multiplier wilds (very powerful!), mystery symbols, bonus triggers (two types of bonuses), destroyer feature. If you activate the Super Stake option, you pay a 100% surcharge. It’s an expensive option, but then the features drop more often. Black Gold 2 Megaways has two main bonus features: a free spins bonus and a respin feature. Both can be purchased for 100x the bet via the Buy a Bonus option.

4 or more scatters gets you the free spins bonus where you get to choose from three variants of free spins bonuses (with varying spins and starting multipliers) and a mystery choice. During the free spins, a progressive multiplier is active, which grows by +1 after each winning cascade. With three or more scatters, you win at least five more free spins. In addition, mystery features are again active, where stacked wilds and wild multipliers provide huge payouts. Gold Rush is the name of the respin feature, where you try to score as many money bags and boosters as possible. You start with three respins, which reset after you spin at least 1 new symbol.

You can also win the following boosters:

  • Adder – increases the values of the money bags between 1-5 on some reels.
  • Multiplier – increases all values on a reel by x2, x5, or x10.
  • Expander – increases a number of reels by 1 position.
  • Collector – collects all values on the playfield.
  • Gold – each reel gets an extra money bag.
  • Extra Spin – you get an extra respin.
  • Lucky Streak – you win extra many boosters.

This feature has a high Money Train content, so if you are a fan of this kind of bonus, you will undoubtedly enjoy the Gold Rush respins too. Stakelogic was already doing well in recent years, but is now really rising above itself. This slot is perhaps the perfect Megaways slot, having everything in it that makes gambling so much fun. There are mystery bonuses, the potential is huge and the slot is full of humour and surprises.

3. Extra Chilli Megaways High Volatility Slot

4.35/5
8.7

Extra Chilli is a high variance video slot from Big Time Gaming, but many people also refer to it as Bonanza 2 – this slot is a kind of turbo version of the hugely popular online slot Bonanza, of which we also have another game on this list.Extra Chilli resembles Bonanza in many ways. There are up to 117,649 ways to win, you can win unlimited multipliers and winning combinations disappear to make way for new ones.  Fortunately, the high payout percentage has also remained: it is between 96.15% and 96.82%.The theme has changed drastically, though: from a miner’s village you have moved to a cheerful Mexican village, complete with fireworks and chillis.

Extra Chilli has no paylines, it uses the win all ways principle. All combinations of contiguous symbols count from left to right. The exact number of ways to win varies. There are 6 reels, and up to 7 symbols are spun. The more symbols, the more chances for payouts. The betting range is between 0.20 euros and 40 euros per spin. The wild symbol consists of a pot of fire arrows and substitutes for all other symbols except the scatter.

The peppers are worth the most in this game:

  • The purple pepper pays out as much as 50x the bet for every 6
  • The other three chillies pay out between 2x and 7.5x for a 6-of-a-kind
  • The card symbols 9, 10 , B, Q, K and A have payouts ranging between 0.8 x and 1.75 x your bet. Now that may seem low, but these symbols often appear in stacks and there are many ways to win.

As soon as you spin 3 or more scatters (the letters H, O and T) you win free spins. 3 scatters earn 8 free spins. Each additional scatter also gives 4 more free spins. During the free spins, every winning combination increases the multiplier by +1. When combined with the Megaways, this can lead to huge payouts. Retriggers are awarded by spinning 3 or 4 pots of Chilli peppers on the bottom reel, for 4 or 8 extra free spins respectively. Extra Chilli is very volatile, and you’ll especially notice this during the free spins bonus. You might win big, but you can also win nothing at all for several rounds in a row. Another new feature is the Gamble Feature. You can attempt to multiply your free spins with it. To do this, you spin and if it lands on the right square, you win extra free spins. If it lands on the wrong square, you lose free spins. Extra Chilli lets you buy bonus features directly too. These are quite expensive though: you pay 50x the bet for a minimum of 8 free spins. If, in addition to the fixed scatters, BTG symbols are also dropped during the Feature Drop spin, you get a discount.

Playing with the Feature Drop is very interesting because the real money is in the bonus game at Extra Chilli. But there’s another reason: the game’s payout percentage is higher when you use the Feature Drop. During the regular base game the RTP is 96.15%, if you use the Feature Drop option it climbs sharply to 96.82%. Extra Chilli is a very fun and clever variant on Bonanza made by Big Time Gaming and also has some really cool new features, such as the Feature Drop and the ability to bet your free spins in the Gamble Feature. Extra Chilli is undoubtedly doing well in online casinos – everything is perfectly put together and you can win a lot of money. A trick that Big Time Gaming has mastered to perfection.

4. Sweet Bonanza High Volatility Slot

SweetBonanzaSlot
Sweet Bonanza
4.25/5
8.5

Pragmatic Play has shown they are not afraid of innovation. For instance, they single-handedly managed to breathe new life into the back-to-basics single payline slot machine with 888 Dragons. In May 2019, they nicely launched their own Pragmatic Play Live Casino in a time when everyone was afraid of Evolution Gaming. And with the video slot Peking Luck, they sent the Megaways slots into the woods with a maximum possible payout of 180,000 x the total bet. Now this successful Romanian games maker came up with Sweet Bonanza, their first tumbling reels slot.

Apart from a crazy-sweet theme, Sweet Bonanza has a lot of fun to offer:

  • Win up to 21,100 x the total bet.
  • Win additional multipliers up to 100x during the free spins.
  • Buy a bonus.
  • Raise your bet for extra chances of a bonus trigger.

When you open this game, it´s like you entered Candy Crush. It is a wonderful world full of fruit, delicious ice cream, meringues and, of course, the most delicious candy. The game is played on a matrix of 6 x 5 symbols. You place bets starting at 0.20 euros and going up to 100 euros per spin. The theoretical payout percentage is between 96.48% and 96.51%. Winning combinations occur as soon as 8 or more of the same scattered symbols appear on the playing area. All symbols from this winning cluster then explode to clear the way for new symbols. This allows multiple winning combinations in a row. The more scattered symbols you spin of a particular symbol, the higher the prize. The highest paying symbols are the candies. The heart is the most popular candy: spin 12 or more of them and you win 50x the total bet. The fruit symbols pay less: these pay out between 2x and 10x the bet for 12 or more of the same symbols.

4 or more scattered lollies trigger the free spins bonus. Incidentally, you can greatly increase your chances of winning a bonus round by placing a bonus bet. This will cost you an extra 25% on top of your total bet, but it will win you the free spins bonus a lot faster. Don’t want to wait? Then you can also just buy the bonus feature for 100 x the total bet. During the free spins, bombs with multipliers appear on the screen. These multipliers combine together and are multiplied by the total winnings at the end of a spin. It is possible to accumulate multipliers up to 100 times this way. While the style of this game might not appeal to all, it does definitely show it’s worth.

5. Gonzo’s Quest High Volatility Slot

4.3/5
8.6

One of the most successful and popular NetEnt slots is Gonzo’s Quest. In Gonzo’s Quest, you step into the shoes of a Spanish conquistador hunting for treasures in the South American jungle. Gonzo’s Quest does not use spinning reels. The symbols fall down. After each drop, the winning symbols explode, and the open spaces are filled by new symbols. Meanwhile, the multiplier increases. In the base game you can win up to 5 times your stake. In Gonzo’s Quest’s bonus game, the multiplier can even go up to 15x. So you can win quite a lot on this slot. This is also reflected in the payout percentage: 96 per cent. Gonzo’s Quest has everything that makes a slot machine fun: it’s exciting and you can win great prizes on it! There are 20 paylines. You decide how many coins per payline you bet (level) and how much such a coin is worth to you. The maximum bet is € 50: 5 coins of € 0.50 each per payline. You can also play with less. You can play conquistador from €0.20 per game.

There are seven different symbols. These are colourful stones with images created by Indians on them. The best paying stone earns 2,500 credits per bet level. Suppose you play on level 5, this means 12,500 coins. At €0.50 per coin, which means a prize of €6,250. The stone with the question mark on it is the Wild symbol. The payouts per combination are generally not thunderously high. Gonzo’s Quest becomes especially fun if you can take great advantage of the Avalanche feature. Every time you win, the stones that caused the win explode. The rest of the stones fall down, while the vacant spots are filled with new stones. This is called ‘Avalanche’. Each avalanche means the multiplier increases. Do you score another winning combination after the avalanche? Then you get a double payout of your winnings. Do you then have another winning combination? Then you can hope for the win times 3 after that. The multiplier increases to a maximum of 5 times.

So Gonzo’s Quest can also pay out just fine in the base game. Thanks to the Avalanche feature. The shiny stone topped with some kind of shield is the bonus symbol. If three of these symbols fall, you unlock the Free Falls. You get 10 Free Falls. These Free Falls work exactly the same way as the “spins” in the base game. However, you play with a higher multiplier. You start with a multiplier of 3X. So any winnings you get are multiplied by at least 3 anyway. Five blue stones then yield up to a maximum of €31,250 instead of up to a maximum of €6,250 per payline.The Free Falls pay off just fine if you manage to achieve several Avalanches in a row. Each Avalanche increases the multiplier. The second Avalanche has a multiplier of 6x. You get 9x the normal winnings if you win during the third Avalanche. After that, it’s all cash. From the fourth avalanche onwards, you play with a multiplier of 15X.

So you can grab a maximum of €93,750 per payline during these free falls. Not only do multiple Avalanches pay off big, it’s also very exciting. After all, an avalanche with no prizes means you start again from scratch. It is perfectly logical and understandable that Gonzo’s Quest is one of the most played slots ever. This is because the gameplay with Avalanches combined with climbing multipliers is incredibly exciting and fun. Every Avalanche you sit in suspense. Not just to see what you win, but especially to see which multiplier you play the next avalanche with. And then that next avalanche has yet to begin…. After Gonzo’s Quest, the avalanche feature has been used frequently in other slots. Also (or perhaps: especially) by competitors. MicroGaming, one of NetEnt’s biggest competitors, even tried to copy Gonzo’s Quest. Jungle Jim El Dorado is a (poorly executed copy of Gonzo’s Quest).

Play now 100% safe at:

5/5
8.1

Play now at one of our top 5 online casinos:

5/5
9.0
4/5
8.6
4/5
8.3
4/5
8.2
4/5
8.1