Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the internet and the world for the last decade, there’s a good chance you have some idea of what a modern slot game looks like. While the traditional casinos of Vegas are still thriving, this is the era of the virtual slot, played on mobiles and computers alike.
If you open up a casino site or app and check out the slot section though, the list seems to go on forever, and it can be a bit confusing to see just where to start. We’re going to break down just how many slots are out there, and what the most common types are that you can find.
So how many slots are there?
Finding any one set number for the number of slots available can be tricky just because of the casinos offering them. Not every Online Slots casino will have a full library, with only some game providers represented on smaller sites. For a decent benchmark, you need to use one of the bigger examples, such as Paddy Power’s online casino, as they are more likely to have the full amount of titles thanks to partnerships with all the major developers.
The number given there is around the 600 mark, although this likely doesn’t include multiple varieties of the same game, such as jackpot, live, and Megaways versions, which we’ll discuss later. We can safely say that the number is over 600, and that number grows every week.
What are the most common themes?
Almost every type of entertainment will rely on popular themes as covered by Masterclass. Given that gambling in Ancient Egypt was one of the earliest recorded in the world, it’s no surprise so many Online Slots use the pharaohs and Egyptian gods as a base. The treasures dug up by archaeologists haven’t hurt either, and other ancient empires such as the Greeks and the Vikings also appear extremely commonly.
Beyond these, pretty much every other theme you can imagine is represented, from jungle animals to Merlin to mad scientists and everything in between. There are even specially licensed games built around music groups like 80s legends Guns’n’Roses and KISS.
What common types of slots are there?
You can expect to see three prominent types of slots; standard reel slots, grid (or cluster) slots, and Megaways slots. The first is what you’d expect from a classic slot machine with several reels and specific lines to match symbols. Grid slots instead play on a square, usually something like 8×8 or more, and look for groups of symbols to make wins.
Finally, there are Megaways slots, which look a lot like standard reel slots, except the number of slots on each reel usually changes with each spin, and symbols can match as long as they appear in consecutive reels, no matter where they exactly land.
So the next time you go to an online casino, you should at least have a better idea of what you’re looking at in the slot section. There’s plenty more we didn’t mention though, so you should definitely explore for yourself.
