RTP - Return to Player in Slot Machines
Suppose you are looking for an online slot game to enjoy and eventually win some money out of such enjoyment, but you have little previous experience. In that case, you might feel confused and overwhelmed with some “parameters” at first. One such parameter is the RTP, which stands for “return to player”. Return to player is a percentage value expressing the odds of scoring a payout in an extended period.
Return to player percentage is the complete opposite of the house edge percentage, and these two make one whole of 100%. Are you feeling dazzled? Let’s put it through an example. So, you decided to play a slot machine with an RTP percentage of 95% and a total bet set to occupy the value of 1 credit. If you play 100 such 1-credit worth spins, you may expect that, on average, the slot machine will return 95 of 100 wagered credits. The remaining five credits correspond to 5% of the house edge advantage.
Highest RTP Slots 2021 (RTP above 97%)
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RTP – Calculation & Significance
Again, the main thing to clarify here is that the return to player percentage is just an average value calculated based on million spins! That’s why it is often labelled as “theoretical”, and it serves only as a mere orientation parameter when selecting a game to play. Because, let’s remember, with online slot machines, there are no certainties, and there is no foreseeing, while all such games are based on the software named Random Number Generator, and such name speaks for itself! That’s why, even when playing games with a return to player rate of 95% and above, one round can make you a millionaire, but also, precisely one round is needed for reaching complete bankruptcy.
How to Find Game’s RTP Percentage?
In the Internet age, no information is hard to find if you know how to search correctly. Since online gambling has become one of the fastest-growing industries, literally thousands of online casino oriented websites have emerged, offering game reviews as a part of their content.
However, if you are feeling untrusty towards such websites and want to be provided with a piece of first-hand, legit information about the game’s return to player percentage rate, you are left with two options:
- Visit the website of the provider standing behind the game.
- Start the game, visit the paytable section, and the return to player percentage value somewhere at the bottom.
Every casino games developer wanting to compete on the market is obliged to provide some “basic information” about the product, and such info includes the return to player rate. But again, keep in mind that RTP is just a statistical, somehow “theoretical” value that gamblers should not consider as an absolute but only as vertical orientation.
Top 5 Slots with Highest RTP
After clarifying basic terms related to Return to Player percentage, here are brief overviews of some of the most popular online slot games with high RTP values:
- Book of 99
- Marching Legions
- Rick and Morty Megaways
- Blood Suckers
- Big Bad Wolf
Book of 99
Book of 99 is an online slot game released back in May 2021 by Relax Gaming. The name is purposely such to imply the astonishing 99% of the theoretical return to player rate with medium to high volatility! Book of 99 follows the Trojan War story, allowing the player to participate in such adventure for only 0.1 per spin! The non-progressive jackpot amounts to x5,000.
The game is packed with features, among them the Bonus Round, which awards ten free spins, then Expanding Symbols, and the Wild Collection Meter, through which you can also trigger free spins by collecting and filling the meter up; with 99 wild symbols!
Marching Legions
As in the previous game, Marching Legions is released by the provider known by Relax Gaming’s name. This particular slot was brought to the public in July 2020, introducing one of the highest return to player percentages rate in the world of online slot machines – 98.12% accompanied with high volatility! If you decide to march with the legions, you will do so across a field made out of 5 reels and three rows, intersected with 243 paylines. Each player competes for an astounding x10,000-worth non-progressive jackpot prize!
You get to take advantage of a wide array of features on your way towards such jackpot, including Free Spins, Marching Re-spins, Stacked Symbols, Sticky Wilds, Wild Nudge, as well as the Symbol Collection (Energy) Feature, through which you can collect a total number of seven regular symbols, three lower-paying, and four premium ones.
Rick and Morty Megaways
Based on the worldwide popular animated TV show, the developers from Blueprint Gaming have widened their portfolio with a high-quality, high-volatility online slot machine that introduces a pretty substantial return to player percentage rate that takes the value of 96.55%. Based on the superb Megaways platform, the game introduces a massive number of 117,649 ways to achieve a payout combination! The non-progressive jackpot is nothing less impressive, occupying the amount of 50,000x player’s stake!
Besides an amusing storyline, the players can benefit from a palette of features, such as the Avalanche feature, known as the Cascading Wins feature. Then Free Spins with mode choosing and Multipliers, Additional (Random) Wilds, Wild Symbol Substitution, and the Symbol Collection feature.
Blood Suckers
Blood Suckers can be described as a legendary game produced by one of the most successful providers on the online slot market – Net Entertainment or NetEnt. The game introduces a pretty massive return to player percentage rate that takes the value of 98%, with low volatility! The players get to enjoy Blood Suckers over a reel grid designed in a 5×3 way, carrying 25 paylines over it. Playable for just 0.25 per spin, the game allows each player to win the maximum amount of just over 50,000 credits! The players can take advantage of several features, including the Wild Symbol Substitution, Free Spins, and the Bonus Game!
Big Bad Wolf
Finally, the Big Bad Wolf, produced and released by Quickspin, also comes as the Big Bad Wolf Megaways version! This particular online casino slot comes with a solid return to player percentage of exactly 97.34%, alongside with volatility rate described as high! Players can reach the maximum win amount of 1,268x total bet. Gamblers can play the game by wagering just 0.25 per round.
Big Bad Wolf is a cartoon-themed video slot with a 5×3 reel grid and 25 paylines. It provides the opportunity to benefit from several additional features: Blowing Down the House feature, then Free Spins, Re-Spins, Multipliers, Symbol Swap, and Wild Symbol Substitution feature.
Variance (Volatility) & Hit Frequency
You’ve probably seen that we mentioned volatility in slot reviews above, and you probably concluded that it could be either low, medium or high. That’s exactly right. But, what is volatility, also known as variance? This parameter is related to how much risk one takes when playing a specific game. Through it, the players can “foresee” how often the game is expected to pay out and how big the amount the player can expect to win. However, much as the RTP, this parameter can also be labelled as theoretical, while it carries no absolute value.
Higher volatility slots usually carry enormous differences between minimum and maximum payouts, which is the opposite in low variance slots. One thing to keep in mind: the more significant is the jackpot offered by the game, and you can expect that it comes with a higher variance rate!
Hit frequency refers to the frequency of the occurrence of payouts. For instance, if the hit frequency is 25%, 25 out of 100 spins played will generate a payout.
RTP Myths/Truths
- RTP (and variance) decide the player’s fate
- Not entirely true, while the game possesses yet another essential component – Random Number Generator.
- High RTP games will bring millions
- Not entirely true, while RTP refers to the payouts’ frequency, not to their amount.
- RTP is a fixed value
- Also not entirely true, while it represents an average value, and there are some games that, for instance, come with different RTP percentages for the base game and Bonus Game.