Gates of Olympus POP is Pragmatic Play's first release under its new "POP" sub-brand — a portrait-format, mobile-first reworking of the studio's Gates of Olympus franchise. The reels are smaller, the pace is faster, and Zeus himself has been redrawn as a chibi-style mascot, but the pay-anywhere tumble mechanic and the multiplier symbols that made the original a hit are both still here. It's a lighter, quicker session than the flagship game rather than a replacement for it.
Contents
- The Story
- Theme, Gameplay & Symbols
- Presentation & Sound
- How to Play
- Features & Mechanics
- Volatility & Win Potential
- Pros & Cons
- Final Verdict
The Story
There's no new lore here — Gates of Olympus POP keeps the same premise as the original 2021 release: Zeus, ruler of Olympus, rains down multipliers and riches from the clouds above a marble temple. Pragmatic Play's own announcement frames POP as a family of games built for "fast, accessible gameplay" aimed at casual and mobile players, reusing recognisable IP (Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza and Starlight Princess are named as the launch line-up) rather than introducing new characters or settings.
Theme, Gameplay & Symbols
Visually, this is unmistakably a Gates of Olympus game: white marble columns, blue flame torches and a cloud-wreathed temple sit behind a 3×5 grid, with the same gemstone low-pay symbols and crowned-letter high-pays as the original. The headline change is Zeus's own redesign — a shorter, rounder, more cartoonish figure than the imposing god of the flagship title, matching the softer art direction Pragmatic Play says it wants across the whole POP range.
Wins are pay-anywhere rather than fixed-payline: land five or more matching symbols in view and they pay out before tumbling away to make room for new symbols falling in, so a single spin can chain several wins back to back.
Presentation & Sound
The portrait orientation is the biggest departure from the original: everything is built to fill a phone screen without rotating, with a taller, narrower reel window than the 6×5 landscape grid of the flagship Gates of Olympus. The colour palette leans brighter and more saturated than the original's, and the god's redesign carries through into the win animations and jackpot celebrations. Pragmatic Play hasn't published a soundtrack breakdown for the POP range, but the temple setting and ambient thunder cues follow the same audio motifs as the wider Gates of Olympus series.
How to Play
- Set your stake using the bet selector — Gates of Olympus POP accepts wagers from £0.10 up to £250 per spin, though UK-licensed operators cap actual stakes at £5 per spin for players aged 25 and over, and £2 per spin for 18–24-year-olds, regardless of the game's own maximum.
- Press spin. Matching symbols pay out anywhere on the 3×5 grid when five or more are in view, then tumble away for new symbols to fall in.
- Watch for multiplier symbols — these can appear during any tumble in the base game or bonus round and add their value to the total win at the end of the sequence.
- Land three or more scatter symbols to trigger 15 free spins; landing two or more further scatters during the bonus awards five extra spins.
- Two or three POP jackpot symbols landing alongside scatters when the bonus triggers award an instant 500x or 25,000x prize on top of the free spins.
Features & Mechanics
The core loop is built around two systems working together: pay-anywhere tumbling wins, and random multiplier symbols that can land during either the base game or the free spins bonus, worth anywhere up to 1,000x on their own and stacking additively across a tumble sequence. The scatter-triggered bonus opens with 15 free spins and can be extended by landing further scatters mid-bonus. Sitting alongside the free spins is a two-tier jackpot: landing two POP symbols with the triggering scatters pays a fixed 500x "Spark" prize, while three pays the 25,000x "Burst" jackpot — Pragmatic Play's official material describes this as the game's practical ceiling for a single win.
Volatility & Win Potential
Pragmatic Play's own game page lists Gates of Olympus POP at 96.54% RTP; other RTP configurations circulating in the trade press (up to roughly 97.05% at the top end) reflect the fact that operators can typically choose between several certified RTP tiers for Pragmatic titles, so the figure you see in a given casino's game info panel may differ slightly from the headline number. Volatility sits in the medium band — lower than the original 6×5 Gates of Olympus, which is one of the more volatile titles in the wider franchise. Hit frequency is a relatively high 28.82%, meaning wins land more often per spin than in most high-volatility slots, in keeping with the POP range's "faster, more casual" design brief. The maximum win is 25,000x the stake via the Burst jackpot. Bet range runs from £0.10 to £250 per spin as configured by Pragmatic Play, though — as above — UK-licensed operators apply their own £5 (25+) or £2 (18–24) per-spin stake caps on top of this.
Pros & Cons
- Pro: Familiar Gates of Olympus mechanics (tumbling wins, stacking multipliers) in a faster, shorter session.
- Pro: Medium volatility and a 28.82% hit frequency make it noticeably more forgiving than the flagship 6×5 game.
- Pro: Portrait format is genuinely built for one-handed mobile play rather than a landscape game squeezed onto a phone screen.
- Con: Max win of 25,000x is lower than some other Gates of Olympus variants in the wider franchise.
- Con: The redesigned, more cartoonish Zeus loses some of the visual weight of the original's god-of-thunder presentation.
Final Verdict
Gates of Olympus POP doesn't try to out-do the flagship game — it's a shorter, softer, more mobile-friendly spin on the same formula, and it succeeds on those terms. Players who found the original's high volatility punishing may prefer this medium-volatility, higher-hit-frequency version, while anyone who wants the full 6×5 grid and higher ceiling should stick with Gates of Olympus or Gates of Olympus 1000.
