Buffalo King Megaways review: RTP, verdict, and what 18,000 spins taught us

Buffalo King Megaways is Pragmatic Play’s Megaways version of Buffalo King, released in April 2021. We ran it from launch, then kept it in rotation over time. First thing you notice is the number of ways to win: 200,704.

Most Megaways slots stop at 117,649. Pragmatic added a horizontal reel above the main grid, and that alone pushes the count up hard.

On paper, it looks tempting. After 18,000 spins, we are more split on it, especially around the bonus multipliers. They can rescue a session. They can also ruin one.

Buffalo King Megaways: what we saw in testing

The 96.52% RTP holds up. Across our 18,000 spins, the real return sat close to the advertised figure, which is not always the case with downgraded versions you find on some casinos, including 94.51% being served quietly.

That matters here because Buffalo King Megaways does not give much away in the base game. If the RTP is shaved down, you feel it quickly. The slot is already rough enough at full rate.

The downside is the volatility. Rated 5/5, and you feel it straight away. Our worst run: 287 empty spins between two bonuses, enough to wreck a badly managed bankroll.

Buffalo King Megaways also has one clear weakness compared with other slots: the base game. We found it very flat, with big hits of x50 or more turning up very rarely.

A few markers from our own testing:

• 1 bonus every 237 spins on average, without Ante Bet
• average return on a free spins round: around 91x the stake
• best hit: 1,847x on a €2 stake
• the advertised 5,000x ceiling, never came close

To put that into real terms: over a 500-spin session at €0.40, you can easily land only one bonus if you run below average. That is what makes Buffalo King Megaways brutal for a tight bankroll.

How Buffalo King Megaways works

You get 6 reels, with each column showing between 2 and 7 symbols at random on every spin. That creates those uneven grids: 2 symbols on one reel, 7 on the next. The more the reels fill out, the higher the number of ways to win climbs.

To land a win, you need at least 3 matching symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the left. Easy enough when you are new to it. No need to track fixed paylines or stare at the grid trying to work out what just paid.

The horizontal reel and 200,704 ways to win

The new bit at the time was the reel moving from right to left above reels 2 to 5. We did not buy into it at first. In practice, it adds one extra symbol to each of those four middle reels, and that is exactly what takes the game from 117,649 to 200,704 ways.

The calculation fits on one line: 7 × 8 × 8 × 8 × 8 × 7. A full grid is still rare though. Our record topped out at 189,432 ways on a single spin.

Even that barely turns up. Most of the time you are spinning on half-filled grids that pay small but often, which gets frustrating fast.

Cascades, the engine behind the bigger rounds

After every win, the winning symbols explode, the symbols above drop down, and new ones fill the gaps. As long as a new combination forms, it keeps going. If you have played Sweet Bonanza before, it is the same tumble principle.

Our best chain: 9 cascades in a row on a single spin. Final return was only x24.9 though, which says plenty about how frustrating the Buffalo King Megaways base game can be.

Buffalo King Megaways symbols and payouts

Five animals sit at the top of the paytable, with the buffalo above everything else. Its edge is simple: it pays from 2 symbols, not 3 like the rest. Across 200,704 ways, that creates the small wins that keep a session alive.

Values based on a €1 starting stake.

The A, K, Q, J and 10 card symbols sit at the bottom, paying between €0.10 and €1.00 for 6 matching. They pay next to nothing, but they feed the cascades that can, sometimes, turn into a decent result.

Special symbols are simple enough. The golden wild only lands on reels 2 to 5 and substitutes for everything except the scatter. The scatter, shown as the buffalo coin, is what triggers the free spins.

Buffalo King Megaways free spins, where the game actually lives

The base game in Buffalo King Megaways is dull. The real pull sits in the free spins. The number of spins depends on how many scatters you land:

• 4 scatters: 12 spins + 5x the stake
• 5 scatters: 17 spins + 20x the stake
• 6 scatters: 22 spins + 100x the stake

Retriggers are unlimited, and each one adds more spins. We have had free spins rounds finish with more than thirty spins on the counter.

Stacking wild multipliers

The main event is the wild multiplier system. During the free spins, every wild carries a x2, x3 or x5 multiplier. They do not add together. They multiply with each other across the cascades on the same spin.

A x2 wild followed by a x3 wild gives you x6 on every win from that spin. Our record was x15, from three wilds landing in sequence.

The catch: the multiplier does not carry over to the next spin. That system annoyed us more than anything else. You build a decent multi, then it disappears one spin later. We would have preferred a progressive system closer to Gates of Olympus 1000.

Is the Buffalo King Megaways Ante Bet worth it?

Ante Bet, called Double Chance here, increases the stake by 25% to “double” your chances of landing the bonus. Our tracking was clear: roughly 1 bonus every 237 spins without it, against 1 every 118 with it.

The frequency doubles, but so does the bill. Our rule after a fair few sessions: only switch it on if you have at least 350x your stake behind you. Below that, we do not think it is worth it.

We were lucky to average 1 bonus every 118 spins with it active, but we have seen forum posts from others who went 250 to 300 spins without landing one.

Buffalo King Megaways against the competition

Buffalo King stands out in the Megaways bracket because of its ways to win count, but it falls behind on max win.

For regular action across 2 to 3-hour sessions, Buffalo King’s 200,704 ways keep the pace better. If you are chasing the really big hit, The Dog House Megaways lands heavier with its 12,305x potential, but it is harsher on the bankroll. Madame Destiny Megaways is basically Buffalo with a fortune-teller skin.

Strategy and bankroll on Buffalo King Megaways

With volatility rated 5/5 by Pragmatic Play, Buffalo King Megaways needs strict bankroll control. The only rule that still holds: max 0.5% of your budget per spin. We use that one since getting rinsed after raising stakes during a dead run, hoping something would land.

In practice, with a €100 session, you stay between €0.20 and €0.40 per spin. With €300, you can move up to €0.50 to €1 and try Ante Bet once you are in profit. Beyond that, switching Ante Bet on from the start is debatable, but only if you can take the variance without flinching.

Buffalo King Megaways on mobile: our full test

On mobile, no real complaint. We put hours into it across iPhone and Android, plus iPad, with no slowdown apart from one entry-level Xiaomi where closing the other apps fixed the stutter.

Even a 45-minute session on the metro with patchy 4G never crashed the game. It picked up exactly where we left it. No app download needed, the buttons respond properly, and changing stakes is straightforward.

Where to play Buffalo King Megaways

On CrazyBet, Buffalo King Megaways runs at the real 96.52% RTP, not the trimmed 94.51% version you see floating around elsewhere, and the demo is available if you want to test it before staking.

After one finally winning session, we had withdrawals paid in under 24 h. That changes the mood when you have spent two hours grinding before catching the right bonus. The welcome bonus (+100% up to €500) also gives you more room to test the slot with a bigger budget.

Our verdict on Buffalo King Megaways

Buffalo King Megaways does the job, nothing more. Its 200,704 ways looked impressive in 2021 and still hold up, the 96.52% RTP sits above average, and the stacked wild multipliers can turn an average free spin into a result you remember.

But, and it is a big but, the variance gives you no room and the max win is capped at 5,000x, while the original Buffalo King, outside the Megaways version, went up to 93,750x.

If you like the western theme and can sit through long sessions without tilting during dead stretches, go for it. If you want steadier returns or a higher ceiling, skip it.

Field score: 7.8/10. Built for experienced slot players with the time and budget to let the mechanic breathe.