What Are The Best Slot Machines To Play Online?

There’s so much choice today when it comes to online slots that it can be difficult to decide just which games to play.

Whilst choosing the best slot game is largely subjective there are certain things which all players can agree on. First and foremost amongst those is that if you’re primary concern is for your chance of making a profit, then slots with high return to player percentages (RTP %) – like those in the table below – are the best place to start.

Further down the page we’ll also take a look at progressive v regular slots to see which you should be playing.

Best Online Slot Machines To Play: Top 6

What Are RTP Percentages?

If you’re looking at the above slots and wondering just what on earth all the numbers mean, you can rest assured that you’re not only. Whilst RTP percentages at first seem complicated, however, they are actually fairly simple and give slots players a really good way of comparing different games in terms of their winning potential.

What an RTP % essentially displays is the percentage of the total amount paid into a slot machine or only slot game which is expected to be paid back out in winnings.

In theory, for example, if R2 200 is paid into a slot with an RTP % of 95%, then the slot would be expected to pay out approximately R2 100 in winnings.

From a slot player’s perspective, therefore, slot games with a higher RTP % are the games which are ‘looser’ or which generally pay out more often. What’s crucial to understand about RTP percentages, however, is that they are average values worked out based on a huge number of spins.

What they tell you, therefore, is how much a slot is expected to pay out over many months or years of it being played, as opposed to how much it will definitely pay out during each session of play. The aforementioned slot with the 95% RTP %, therefore, could indeed pay out R2 100 to a player who spent R2 200 playing it but could also pay out nothing, R4 200 or much more than that.

Progressive Slots vs Regular Slots

As well as thinking about what’s important to them about slot games and taking into account the RTP % offered by different games, slots players have one main decision to make when choosing what to play. That is whether they’re going to play a progressive slot or a regular slot, and the following pros and cons should help make that decision a little easier.

Progressive Slots: Pro’s & Con’s

• Jackpots for progressive slots are generally much higher. The main jackpot for a progressive slot game can be a truly life changing sum of money.
• Slot developers and online casinos are keen on players playing their big progressive slots, so often give the games additional features and bonus rounds aplenty.
• The theoretical return to player percentage of a progressive slot rises as the jackpot rises.

• The baseline level return to player percentage of progressive slots is generally much lower than that of regular slots. The difference can be as significant as around 8-10%.
• Most progressive slots only make their largest, main jackpot available to players who bet larger amounts. Playing these slots, therefore, can prove much more expensive.
• The return to player percentage associated with progressive slots is hugely impacted by the very occasional pay out of a very high jackpot. Between those jackpots, then, the slots tend to return far less than other games.

Regular Slots: Pro’s & Con’s

• Return to player percentages tend to be much higher for regular slots than progressive alternatives. Some of the best regular slots have RTP percentages of over 95%.
• Playing regular slots gives players a far greater choice of games. There are considerably more regular slots to choose from.
• There is generally no requirement placed upon regular slot players to bet at the highest possible level.

• Even the top jackpots of the most generous regular slot games are nowhere near as big as those available via progressive slots.
• Many regular slots tend to have fewer additional gameplay features than progressive alternatives. This isn’t, however, always the case.

The bottom line here is that if you’re happy to sacrifice a bigger edge to the casino for the chance to win a massive jackpot then progressive slots are probably the way to go, if you’re more bothered about minimising house edbe when you play then stick to regular slots with high RTP% like those listed above.

Who Makes The Best Slot Machines?

Part of the reason why there are now so many different slot games to choose from, is because they are manufactured by a considerable number of different software developers. Each of those developers create unique and innovative new slots titles on a regular basis and it is once again largely a matter of taste when it comes to which can be said to make the best games.

If your primary consideration is the average RTP % of the games provided by different developers, we’ve done some leg work for you to make it really easy to compare your options. The following graph shows the average RTP % across all slot games developed by the eight main developers in the industry, basically it shows the best slot machine to play online by maker.

*For a more detailed anaylsis see our page on the best payout slots.

There are other factors to consider when deciding which software developer may make the best slots games for you, however. Certain manufacturers, for instance, are famed for creating innovatively themed games with interesting plotting and well-crafted gameplay features. Others, meanwhile, aim to differentiate their games by filling them with exciting graphics and entertaining sound effects or soundtracks.

The best way to work out which software developer produces the best slots for you, therefore, is to give a few games from each a try and keep track of which you enjoy most. Fortunately, if you’re a fan of playing slots, having to do that kind of research shouldn’t be too taxing.