Rising numbers
Would you rather make a bet with a 25% chance of winning $10,000, or one with a 1% chance of winning $1m? That is the same dilemma facing modern online slots players as they choose which games to play.
Max win multipliers are on the rise, now insanely high compared to just a few years ago. But that staggering increase has come at a cost. These massive multipliers come with extreme volatility, meaning they are very rare to hit and long losing streaks are commonplace.
does rising volatility make these max wins almost obsolete?
As max win multipliers continue to creep up, is this process unsustainable? Slots providers are fighting each other to claim the biggest max win multiplier offer. But ultimately, does rising volatility make these max wins almost obsolete?
VegasSlotsOnline News explores the issue.
Top of the scale
If we take just the past eight years as an example, the growth of max win multipliers is clear to see.
In 2018, the top range of max wins stood at around 12,000x. White Rabbit Megaways by Big Time Gaming was one of the top offerings during this period. The volatility of this title was medium-high, with a return to player (RTP) of 97.77.
It was in 2021 that Nolimit City decided to not only set a new ceiling, but to absolutely burst through the old one. The previous highest max multiplier stood at 25,000x for Deadwood by Nolimit, but in the following year the provider released Mental, which offered a staggering 66,666x max win. It is highly volatile, with an RTP of 96.06.
That total has been beaten since, and by… yes you guessed it, Nolimit again. The supplier decided to up the ante with the second addition to the Mental franchise in 2025. Mental 2 has a max win of 99,999x, an RTP of 96.06% and an “insanely high volatility” – those are the supplier’s own words.
In 2026, the average ceiling stands at around 50,000x for most top providers. Gates of Olympus 1000 by Pragmatic Play is one example of this, with a high volatility and RTP of 96.5.
The odds of winning
There have been three phases of growth over the past three years for most suppliers.
From 2018 to 2020, there was a steady increase in max win multipliers. Then, 2021 brought that sharp spike courtesy of Nolimit which prompted other suppliers to increase max wins too. For most slots, this led to a general plateau from 2022 to 2026 with a max cap at around 50,000x if we take Mental 2 out of the equation.
the published probability of the Mental slot max win is around 1 in 16 million
In that time, the odds of hitting the max win have also lengthened. The chances of hitting the 12,000x max win multiplier on White Rabbit Megaways stands at around 1 in 5 million. Meanwhile, the published probability of the Mental slot max win is around 1 in 16 million. Both are astronomical, but Nolimit’s increase has multiplied the chances by 3.2x. Many slots experts consider White Rabbit an extremely rare hit, while Mental is lottery tier level.
That’s not to say it’s impossible though. Slot streamer Moose hit that max win in March, turning his stake of $0.20 into a payday of $19,999.80. Bean did the same just one month prior, playing with the exact same stake and securing an identical profit.
The future assessed
What about the future of max wins? Can suppliers keep increasing their offerings endlessly?
Well, the fact that most suppliers have maintained their ceiling at around 50,000x since around 2022 is telling in itself. It implies that many believe there is a limit to the attractiveness of these offers. If it takes millions of spins for a chance of winning a top prize, then the amount of that offer is ultimately not going to matter to players.
For instance, lets say Nolimit decides tomorrow that it wants to release Mental 3, this time with a max win of 200,000x. That would mean that players would have around a 1 in 32 million chance of hitting the top multiplier.
1 in 45 million odds of winning the National Lottery in the UK
That’s not far off the 1 in 45 million odds of winning the National Lottery in the UK. The lottery is a fixed rate in which you pay £2 ($2.68) to earn an average of £13m ($17.4m) if you win. If you are only gambling on the hypothetical Mental 3 with $0.20, then that max win is only returning $40,000 if it hits. We think we would rather take our chances on the lottery.
It becomes a question of risk vs reward for both the supplier and the player. The pendulum has to swing in either direction depending on the max win muliplier. The higher the max win, the higher the volatility, whereas the lower the max win, the increased liklihood of hitting.
Ulitmately, slots players have to decide whether a provider has made the offer attractive enough. But we predict we suppliers won’t be offering 200,000x anytime soon.
