Last Updated: May 27, 2026
Written by Jean Prince
2026 will be the 10th anniversary since the first ever Megaways slot game – Bonanza Megaways – was released. To celebrate this, we are going to take a deeper look into what the Megaways engine has done for the online slots industry and how Big Time Gaming’s mechanic has inspired other slot developers.
We love Megaways slots here at SlotsHawk, so we figured that the least we could do to honour such a game-changing mechanic is to take a look back at what a game-changer was before we look at online slot games developed thanks to Megaways.
MEGAWAYS MECHANIC CREATED UNLIMITED PAYLINES
These days, the majority of new online slot releases will have hundreds if not thousands of paylines, but this was not the case prior to Megaways.
The Megaways engine technology meant that slots could now have adjustable reels and rows – this means that, at random, a spin could result in 2-7 rows being utilised on the reels. The more rows, the more paylines become available thus creating many more ways to win. The average Megaways slot could therefore have up to 117,649 paylines! Before this, you were lucky to see more than 20 paylines on a single slot game!
It was thanks to Megaways that the term ‘Unlimited Wins’ was born too. Megaways, with their huge amount of paylines mixed with exploding/cascading reels, allowed for the opportunity of unlimited wins from a single spin. Speaking of which.
MEGAWAYS CASCADING REELS
Cascading reels (also known as exploding reels/symbols) came about during the Megaways boom too and have since become arguably the most popular feature of online slots of all time.
For anyone who is unaware, cascading reels will see all winning symbols disappear from the reels in order to be replaced by new symbols. These new symbols can then trigger more wins and these will then be replaced by new symbols too until a win is not triggered.
Cascading reels will also increase the likelihood of triggering bonus games too as scatter symbols can fall onto the reels. Imagine you have landed two scatter symbols on the reels but then you hit a win from regular symbols, those winning symbols are then replaced and you see another scatter dropping to form three scatters and you hit the bonus game.
BIG TIME GAMING AND MEGAWAYS INSPIRING THE NEW GENERATION OF SLOTS DEVELOPERS
It should come as no surprise that the technology used by Big Time Gaming to create Megaways went on to give other studios the inspiration (and methodology) to create incredibly innovative new slot games.
Think about the likes of Thunderkick, NoLimit City and Push Gaming which are developers that have been able to stand on the shoulders of Big Time Gaming in order to create the outstanding slots we can play today. Put simply, none of their slots would have been made if it was not for Big Time Gaming and Megaways.
Which are your favourite slots that have been released this year? We predict that 95% of those slots would not have been created without the pioneering touch of the engineers behind the Megaways mechanic.
Furthermore, Big Time Gaming allowed other developers to develop games using their Megaways engine. This meant that there were all sorts of brilliant and great Megaways games with different themes and features. The decision by Big Time Gaming not to hog the mechanic was great for everyone involved within online gambling, players included.
We adore the MeJUICEa slot by Thunderkick and Brute Force: Alien Onslaught by NoLimit City – neither of these slots would have happened if it wasn’t for the Megaways tech 10 years ago.
PAYOUT INCREASES GALORE
Due to the huge payline increases, it was only natural that the maximum potential payouts of slots increased too. Take Bonanza Megaways as an example, it was released as the first Megaways game back in 2016 and had a maximum payout of 26,000x which was pretty much unheard of at the time outside of progressive jackpot slots.
How was it able to offer such a high potential payout? It was due to the Megaways engine of up to 117,649 paylines and cascading reels. From then on, almost every slot which had the Megaways mechanic would offer maximum payouts of anything from 10,000x up to over 100,000x and thus searches for the highest paying slot games ever were born.
THE AGE OF HIGH VOLATILITY GAMES
When released, all Megaways slot machines were and still are of high volatility. Before 2016, high volatility slot machines were actual rather uncommon. Of course, high volatility slots in 2026 are now par for the course – although it remains to be seen if we are soon set for another change.
There has been a recent trend towards Cluster Pays slots – these use a Cluster Pays mechanic which is completely different from the Megaways mechanic, but the volatility in such slots usually remains high.
Megaways brought about the age of high volatility and developers like NoLimit City took that even further with their ‘extreme’ volatility slots, but now that the number of new Megaways games being created is dwindling, perhaps that means that the future holds something different.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR MEGAWAYS
In 2021, developers Evolution acquired Big Time Gaming and have since held the key to the Megaways engine. Following the acquisition, we witnessed a record number of new Megaways slots being released.
Fast forward to now though and it is evident that their numbers are dwindling. Of course, it is still possible to play the thousands of Megaways games that there is out there, but these days, we are lucky to see two new releases per month.
So, what does the future hold for Megaways? Well, Megaways slots are still certainly some of the most popular slots played online. However, the Megaways engine itself is no longer novel or original due to the sheer number of games which have Megaways.
However, the decreasing number of new Megaways games tells the story that the industry is moving on from them, although the cascading reels which resulted from Megaways are still among the absolute best game features there is.
It is likely that the trend in 2026 will be similar if not the same to 2025, but if anything should change, you can bet that SlotsHawk will be the first to break it to you.
CONTRIBUTORS
Greetings, I’m Jean Prince
Jean Prince, also known as ‘The Hawk’ in our newsroom is the editor in chief at SlotsHawk.com. He always keeps a hawk eye on the slots market and never lets anything important slip out of his sight.
Editor in Chief since 2020
