People over 18 in the UK love to play slot machines.
Just walk into any betting shop in the country, or check out a handful of online casinos and more than half of the games you’ll find are slot machines.
Why are online slots UK so popular?
They are easy to play, they’re entertaining and can pay you a decent amount on your lucky day.
However, slots aren’t created equal and come in many types.
Below are the most popular online slots in the UK.
Video slots
Video slots are by far the most popular types of slots in the UK.
They’re easy to identify at any casino through their beautiful graphics, loud soundtracks and high-payouts.
At brick-and-mortar casinos, they’re usually crowded with players.
What’s more, video slots have unique themes.
Some are based on sports.
Others take after ancient Egypt, Greek gods, politics, TV shows, and crime.
All the same, below are three of the most popular video slots.
- Starburst
Starburst is a fan-favourite video slot by Swedish developer NetEnt.
Launched in 2012, Starburst grew in popularity quickly for several reasons.
For starters, the game had exceedingly attractive visuals at the time.
Secondly, it branched away from the usual trend of creating slots based on fruits, bars and bell.
The game is based on space and graced by sparkling jewels colored in yellow, blue, purple, red and green.
Starburst has a 96% payout rate, which is impressive.
It’s also a low volatile game.
This means it pays out money to winners regularly albeit in small amounts—you can win up to 5000x your stake.
- Thunderstruck II
Thunderstruck II is a popular online slot by Isle of Man-based developer, Microgaming.
Predictably, it was inspired by Norse gods.
In fact, lining up different Norse gods on the reels is how you win money in this 96% RTP slot.
If you trigger Thor on three reels, you qualify for a bonus round called the Great Hall of Spins.
Here, you win different rewards for activating Valkyrie, Loki, Odin or Thor.
- Book of Dead
Book of Dead is the creation of Swedish developer Play’n GO.
It’s based on ancient Egypt.
It follows the story of a man named Richard Wilde in his quest to finds a book with secrets about the dead.
Launched in 2014, Book of Dead received mixed reactions for its similarities to Novomatic’s Book of Ra.
But once people experienced its gameplay, 96% RTP and in-game bonuses, they fell in love with it.
Progressive slots
Also known as progressive jackpots, progressive slots are designed for one reason—to make people rich.
For this to work, progressive jackpots deduct a small portion of money from each bet.
Additionally, the games are linked across multiple casinos.
However, everyone competes for the same jackpot.
Of course, these games are highly volatile to limit the number of potential winners.
- Mega Moolah
Powered by Microgaming, Mega Moolah is arguably the most popular progressive jackpot game.
It’s based on the African savannah where you play to activate lions, monkeys, giraffes and other animals on the reels.
Mega Moolah also comes with four jackpots: Mini, Minor, Major and Mega.
Mini jackpot pays a measly €10, minor jackpots pay from €100 and major jackpots pay from €10,000.
The Mega jackpot, meanwhile, has a starting point of €1M.
British ex-soldier Jon Heywood nabbed a £13M jackpot from Mega Moolah in 2015, a record at the time.
Presently, the biggest payout from this slot stands at more than €18M.
- Mega Fortune
Mega Fortune is NetEnt’s answer to Mega Moolah, a highly rewarding progressive game with three pots: Mega, Major and Rapid jackpot.
Unlike Mega Moolah, which takes you on a safari, Mega Fortune gives you a glimpse of what you could buy if you win a huge grand prize.
It runs pictures of limousines, yachts, champagne toasts and mansions.
Similar to Mega Moolah, you can play the game to win small non-jackpot prizes.
Of course, the best way to relish this slot is to play well enough to qualify for its jackpots.
Speaking of which, Mega Moolah once paid out €17.8M to a lucky player from Finland.
It regularly pays over £1M every year, so it’s a great game for someone who wishes to get rich overnight.
- Age of Gods
This Greek mythology inspired slot comes from Isle of Man-based Playtech.
With five reels, 20 paylines and a 95% payout rate, it brings together some of the most popular Greek gods, from Hercules to Zeus.
Like many of its peers, this slot has free spins, bonus rounds, wilds and multipliers.
It all depends on what symbols you line up on the reels and if you’re lucky to activate five wild symbols on all five reels, you could win 10,000x your stake.
Then there’s the progressive jackpot.
It’s yet to payout a record amount, but it regularly pays between £100,000 and £500,000 per month.
The highest jackpot someone has won from this slot was £852,000 in 2011.
Megaways slots
Megaways are new types of slots created by Australia’s Big Time Gaming.
They feature an engine that modifies symbols on the reels after every spin.
The result is a highly volatile, high-reward slot machine.
- Bonanza Megaways
Bonanza was one of the first Megaways slots ever created.
It comes with six reels, and 117,649 ways to win, compared to the average slot machine, which has 25 ways to win.
The game took inspiration from a gold mine.
Symbols include letters J, Q, K and A, along with letters G.O.L.D which activate free spins that mean you can win up to 26,000x your stake from this slot.
That said, other popular Megaways slots to play include 88 Fortunes, White Rabbit, Buffalo Rising and Vikings Unleashed Megaways.
Classic slots
Before video slots became a thing, casino lovers in the world only knew of classic slots.
Of course, they simply went by the name slots back then.
Nowadays, most people will tell you to avoid these games because they have low pay-outs and dated graphics.
But you can always check out popular classic slots like Mega Joker, 777, Total Overdrive and Hit it Hard for nostalgic reasons.
That said, remember to always play safe.
