Quick verdict: Bonanza is the 2016 Big Time Gaming release that took the studio's own Megaways engine — first proven on Extra Chilli — and paired it with a brand-new DualCascade mechanic that lets wins cascade both up and down the reels. It's a Wild West gold-mining slot with an unlimited-multiplier free spins round that's since made it one of the most enduring and most-streamed slots of its era, and the direct ancestor of every "Bonanza"-branded sequel that followed. At a flat 96.00% RTP and 117,649 ways to win, it remains a genre-defining title worth knowing even years after its Megaways successors arrived.
The Story
Big Time Gaming released Bonanza in late 2016, a little over a year after its patented Megaways engine first appeared, and the game became the studio's proof that Megaways could carry more than one theme. Its own marketing material at launch pitched it explicitly as "the perfect game for Twitch streamers" — a fast-paced, cascading slot built for exactly the kind of big-swing, big-reaction moments that made streamed slot sessions popular. There's no real narrative here, just a Wild West gold rush setting: a mountainside mine, a wooden cabin, and reels dressed as rock faces waiting to be blasted open. What matters more than the story is the legacy — Bonanza's success led directly to Bonanza Megapays, Bonanza Falls, and an entire "Bonanza" sub-brand that Big Time Gaming and its parent Evolution have kept alive for close to a decade.
Theme, Gameplay & Symbols
Bonanza runs on Big Time Gaming's Megaways engine: six reels with a variable number of symbols per reel on every spin, capping out at up to 117,649 ways to win. Low-paying symbols are the standard 9 through A playing-card royals; higher-paying symbols are coloured gemstones (red, blue and green), building up to a large diamond as the top regular-paying symbol. A dynamite Wild substitutes for all paying symbols and, true to the mining theme, visibly explodes when it lands as part of a winning combination.
Every win triggers Big Time Gaming's DualCascade system: winning symbols are removed and new ones cascade in — vertically in the base game — to fill the gaps, with each cascade capable of triggering further wins from the same spin at no extra cost. Cascades continue until a spin produces no further winning combination, and because the Megaways ways count can shift with the new symbols on each cascade, a single spin can escalate well beyond its opening number of ways.
Presentation & Sound
Bonanza's presentation is straightforward, functional Wild West: a rocky mine-shaft frame around the reels, a wooden cabin and mountain backdrop behind them, and warm, sun-baked colour tones throughout. It's a 2016-era production, so don't expect the layered animation or cinematic intros of Big Time Gaming's more recent releases — symbols are clean and legible rather than heavily detailed, and the interface is built for clarity during fast, repeated cascades rather than spectacle. The soundtrack is an upbeat, banjo-driven loop that stays consistent through the base game, with a dedicated fanfare and a lit-dynamite animation marking the moment the free spins round triggers.
How to Play Bonanza
- Set your stake using the bet selector. Availability and exact stake limits depend on the operator, so check the in-game panel before you play.
- Spin the 6-reel Megaways grid. The number of symbols on each reel — and therefore the total number of ways to win — can change on every spin, up to a maximum of 117,649.
- Wins pay when matching symbols land on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. Winning symbols then cascade away and are replaced by new ones falling into place, and any resulting new win cascades again at no extra cost.
- Watch for G.O.L.D. letter symbols — collecting all four (G, O, L, D) contributes toward triggering the free spins round.
- Land 3 or more Scatter symbols to trigger the Bonus Free Spins round, awarding an initial 12 free spins.
- During free spins, every win adds to a single win multiplier that never resets for the rest of the round — it only ever goes up, and landing 3 or more Scatters again retriggers extra free spins.
Features & Mechanics
The Bonus Free Spins round is triggered by landing 3 or more Scatter symbols in the base game, awarding an initial 12 free spins on a 6-reel Megaways grid. Its headline mechanic is the Unlimited Win Multiplier: a single multiplier value that starts the round at x1 and increases by 1 every time a winning cascade lands, with no cap and no reset between cascades or spins for the rest of the round. Because DualCascade keeps chaining wins from a single spin, a good run of cascades early in the free spins can build a large multiplier before the round is even a third of the way through, and that multiplier then applies to every subsequent win for its remainder.
Free spins can be retriggered: landing 3 or more Scatter symbols again during the round awards further free spins on top of whatever remains, extending both the round length and the window for the multiplier to keep climbing. Big Time Gaming's own promotional material for the round shows multiplier values well into double digits building across a single extended run, which is where this game's standout wins come from — not from any single big cascade, but from a long free spins session where the multiplier has had time to compound.
Volatility & Win Potential
Big Time Gaming's own original technical data sheet, published at launch in 2016, lists Bonanza's RTP at a flat 96.00% with a maximum exposure of 12,000x stake and rates its volatility as medium. In the years since, most current operator listings and independent slot trackers instead describe Bonanza as high volatility with a maximum win nearer 26,000x stake — a discrepancy worth flagging plainly rather than picking one figure silently, since it isn't clear from public sources whether this reflects a later math-model update or simply inconsistent reporting across sites. The RTP figure of 96.00% is consistent everywhere we checked, so that one can be treated as reliable; for volatility and max win, we'd suggest checking the in-game info screen at whichever operator you play, since Big Time Gaming's various licensees can and do run different configurations of older titles like this one. Whichever figure applies, the Unlimited Win Multiplier free spins round is unambiguously where the bulk of this game's win potential sits — base game wins on their own are comparatively modest.
Pros & Cons
- Pro: The Unlimited Win Multiplier free spins round — a multiplier that only ever climbs and never resets — remains one of the most influential bonus formats in the Megaways genre, and Bonanza is where it started.
- Pro: DualCascade keeps the base game active between bonus triggers, with cascades chaining into extra wins from a single spin at no extra cost.
- Pro: A genuinely historic release — the direct ancestor of Bonanza Megapays and Bonanza Falls, and one of the slots that proved Megaways could work across multiple games.
- Con: Presentation is dated next to Big Time Gaming's newer releases — functional rather than visually ambitious by 2026 standards.
- Con: Published volatility and max win figures are inconsistent between Big Time Gaming's original 2016 data sheet and current third-party listings, so treat either figure as indicative rather than fully confirmed.
- Con: Base game wins alone are modest — this is a slot built almost entirely around getting into, and extending, the free spins round.
Final Verdict
Bonanza earns its place in Megaways history for good reason: the Unlimited Win Multiplier free spins format it introduced has been copied, adapted and referenced by dozens of slots since, and the DualCascade base game still holds up as a genuinely engaging way to spend time between bonus triggers. It's not the most polished-looking slot in Big Time Gaming's current lineup, and some of its published stats have drifted or gone unconfirmed over the years, but as a foundational Wild West Megaways title with a flat 96.00% RTP, it's still a reasonable pick — especially for anyone curious where the modern Bonanza series, and a fair chunk of the wider Megaways genre, actually began.
