Six reels are where Megaways, pay-anywhere tumbles and cluster games live. Five six-reel hits compared on how they pay, their return and their multipliers.
Six Columns and What Fills Them
A 6-reel slot adds one column to the classic five, and that extra width is where some of the biggest modern mechanics live. Big Time Gaming’s Megaways games, led by Bonanza, run on six reels, and Pragmatic Play built its pay-anywhere tumble games, often called scatter pays, on a 6×5 grid. NetEnt’s Cluster Pays games use the same width for clusters of matching symbols.
So a six-reel game rarely pays on lines. It pays in ways, in groups or anywhere on the screen, which changes how a win looks. Narrower frames are on our 5 reel slots page, and wider ones on our 7 reel slots page.
Five Six-Reel Hits Compared
Ordered by the top return each studio lists. The paytable inside the game confirms the version a casino has chosen.
| Game | Studio | How it pays | RTP | Max win | Volatility | Hit frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gates of Olympus | Pragmatic Play | Anywhere, 6×5 | 96.50% | 5,000x | High | – |
| Sweet Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | Anywhere, 6×5 | 96.48% | – | – | – |
| Aloha! Cluster Pays | NetEnt | Clusters, 6×5 | 96.42% | 700x | – | 21% |
| Extra Chilli | Big Time Gaming | Up to 117,649 ways | 96.41% | – | High | – |
| Bonanza | Big Time Gaming | 64 to 117,649 ways | 96% | 26,000x | – | – |
Sweet Bonanza’s top win is listed as 21,100x in some places and 21,175x in others, and Extra Chilli’s as 20,000x or 43,440x, so both cells stay empty. Volatility labels for Sweet Bonanza and Bonanza range from medium-high to very high, and NetEnt gives Aloha none. The hit-rate dashes mark games without a widely published figure.
Gates of Olympus
Zeus presides over six tumbling reels, where eight or more matching symbols anywhere on the screen pay and then vanish to let new ones fall. Multiplier symbols worth up to 500x drop in, and four or more scatters bring fifteen free spins. Pragmatic Play lists a 96.50% return. Our Gates of Olympus guide has more, and other games set among the gods are on our Greek mythology slots page.
Sweet Bonanza
The candy-coloured 2019 game that made pay-anywhere tumbles famous. Eight or more matching sweets anywhere on the 6×5 grid pay, four or more lollipop scatters bring ten free spins, and in the free spins multiplier bombs worth 2x to 100x add together at the end of each tumble sequence. Pragmatic Play lists 96.48%. Our Sweet Bonanza guide goes further.
Aloha! Cluster Pays
NetEnt’s 2016 island game pays for groups of touching symbols rather than lines. A cluster win can set off a sticky respin, where the winning symbols hold and the rest spin again, and three or more free spin symbols bring nine to twelve free spins with the low-paying symbols removed. NetEnt lists 96.42%, a 700x top win and a win on 21% of spins. More island reels are on our tropical slots page.
Extra Chilli
Big Time Gaming’s 2018 Megaways follow-up to Bonanza swaps gold for a Mexican food market. Three scatters spelling HOT bring eight free spins, and before they start you can gamble the spins for a chance at more, up to 24, or lose them. In the free spins the multiplier rises by one with every win and has no cap. The studio’s own range is 96.15% to 96.41%. Our Extra Chilli guide has the details.
Bonanza
The 2016 gold mine that made Megaways a household name. Each of the six reels shows two to seven symbols a spin, and a mine-cart reel above the middle four adds one more, for 64 to 117,649 ways. Scatters spelling GOLD bring at least twelve free spins with a multiplier that climbs with each cascade and never resets. It returns 96% and pays up to 26,000x. Our Bonanza Megaways guide has more.
Ways, Tumbles and Clusters
The five games use three different ways to pay on the same width. Megaways multiplies the symbols on each reel, from 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 for 64 up to 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 for 117,649, so the count changes on every spin. Pragmatic’s tumble games ignore position entirely and pay for eight or more of a kind anywhere. Aloha pays for touching groups.
All three remove winning symbols and drop new ones in, so a single paid spin can win several times in a row. More games built on the BTG engine are on our Megaways slots page, and more group-pay games on our cluster pays slots page.
Multipliers That Build or Reset
The free spins on these games live or die by their multipliers, and they work differently. On Bonanza and Extra Chilli the multiplier rises with every cascade and keeps rising to the end of the round. On Sweet Bonanza, bombs add together for one tumble sequence and then clear. On Gates of Olympus, multipliers collected in the free spins build into a running total for the round.
Extra Chilli’s figure of 96.82% that appears in many places applies only when the bonus is bought. British players cannot buy it, as feature buys are left out of GB versions, so the studio’s 96.15% to 96.41% range is the one that counts here.
Half a Point Apart at the Stake Limits
Gates of Olympus at 96.50% and Bonanza at 96% look almost the same. Over 600 spins at £1, they average about £21 and £24 an hour.
At the £5 limit for players aged 25 and over, that gap grows to about £105 against £120 an hour, and at the £2 limit for those aged 18 to 24, about £42 against £48. With high-volatility games like these, any one session can run far above or below those figures.
