Progressive Slots With the Largest Jackpot Wins

Z. Stefanova (editor)

Online slots offer plenty of thrills and excitement but the dream of scoring a life-changing win is the real reason why they are so popular among players. Slots, especially those from the progressive variety, give people the opportunity to fulfill this dream. Progressive slots offer six and seven-figure jackpots that grow in increments each time someone plays them.

These games derive their name from the fact a small percentage of each bet goes toward the top prize. Rather than being fixed, the jackpot continues to swell on and on until someone wins it. Then it resets to a predetermined amount, called a seed, and the whole process starts afresh.

Progressive slots have the potential to turn regular people into multi-millionaires and have indeed done so on multiple occasions over the years. SuperCasinoSites dedicates this article to these millionaire-makers, giving you a glance at the jackpot types, the winning criteria, and some of the progressive slot releases that drop the largest wins.

Not All Progressive Jackpots Are Created Equal

1Jackpot Size and Hit Frequency

A jackpot’s size and hit frequency usually depend on what type of progressive slot you play. Progressive games come equipped with a jackpot meter that shows players the current jackpot amount at any given moment. Some online slots have three or four jackpot meters on display because they yield multi-tier prizes.

Respectively, the hit frequency is based on the prize size. Smaller prizes drop more frequently, while massive ones take months to hit. Below, we describe the three main types of progressive jackpots you will come by when playing the slots at real-money online casinos.

2Standalone Progressive Jackpots

As the name itself suggests, the jackpots of standalone progressives accumulate from a single slot. A nominal portion of each wager players place on the game goes toward the pot. Once the jackpot lands, the casino resets it to its base value and it starts building again. Standalone progressives yield significantly smaller prizes than linked (local) and wide-area jackpot games.

Slot designer Novomatic offers some of the most popular standalone jackpot games in the industry, including Big Five, Book of Ra: Mystic Fortunes, Dancing Tiger, Pyramid Fortunes, and Goddess Rising.

3Linked Progressives Jackpots

Here we have several slots linking to a progressive jackpot network at a single casino. The jackpot builds up across all games that are part of the link. Such progressive prizes are also known as local progressive jackpots. The pots here are larger than those awarded in standalone progressives, although not as large as the prizes in wide-area jackpot games.

Slots like Holmes and the Stolen Stones, Jackpot Express, Ozwin’s Jackpots, Football Fortunes, Achilles, Cash Bandits 3, and Cleopatra’s Gold are some of the most popular releases with local/linked progressive jackpots.

4Wide-Area Progressive Jackpots

In this case, we have a jackpot network that links a progressive jackpot across multiple online casinos that use the same software. One good example is Mega Moolah, a series of online slots which are all part of Microgaming’s jackpot network of the same name. Wide-area progressives are where the truly life-changing jackpots drop. Furthermore, such games reset to six-figure or seven-figure seed amounts, which gives people an incentive to continue playing after somebody has won the pot. The software studios usually supply the seed amounts.

Enormous prizes drop in wide-area progressives like Joker Millions by Yggdrasil, Mega Fortune by NetEnt, Age of the Gods by Playtech, and Mega Moolah and Major Millions by Microgaming.

Jackpot Hit Frequency and Winning Criteria

JackpotThe hit frequency and winning criteria vary across the board, depending on which progressive slot you play. Smaller jackpots tend to drop more often than those that reach the six- or seven-digit mark. One good example comes from the Microgaming studio whose progressive slots are linked to a four-tiered jackpot network that awards mini, minor, major, and mega prizes.

According to the studio’s official website, the network has so far awarded over 18.2 million individual prizes that exceed €1.2 billion in total. Out of those, the studio has recorded 14.2 million and 3.9 million individual wins of mini and minor jackpots, whereas major jackpots have been won only 4,606 individual times. The mega jackpot has produced the smallest number of individual wins.

Microgaming’s Jackpot Network Win Frequency
5.4 jackpots awarded each minute 326 jackpots awarded each hour 7,824 jackpots awarded each day
Individual Jackpot Prizes Awarded by Microgaming’s Progressive Network
Mini Jackpots Minor Jackpots Major Jackpots Mega Jackpots
Over 14.2 million Over 3.9 million 4,606 11,537

This makes sense considering the average win for the major jackpots is around $31,000, while that for the mini pot is usually a three-digit sum. Some online casinos also feature games with boiling-point jackpots where the progressive prize is won by the player who brings it to a predetermined amount with their bet. Such games also go by the name “Must Win By” progressives.

Winning Criteria

1 Winning Criteria #1 - Betting the Maximum on Each Spin

As for the winning criteria, these differ vastly between progressive slots. Some games require players to wager the maximum amount allowed per spin to qualify for winning. In others, betting the maximum is not a requirement, but the odds of winning the jackpots increase proportionately to your bet size. In other words, the larger your wager, the better your chances of scooping the pot.

2Winning Criteria #2 - Aligning Special Symbols on the Reels

Some progressive jackpots are symbol-driven in the sense that players must land a combination of rare symbols to collect the pot or trigger the bonus jackpot game. Such is the case in Playtech’s famed Jackpot Giant slot where five wild icons must appear simultaneously on the first payline to award the biggest prize.

3Winning Criteria #3 - The Jackpot Can Drop Randomly Even on Losing Spins

Let’s use another example from the Playtech progressive suite. The slots from the studio’s Age of the Gods series are linked to a four-level jackpot system, with each of the four progressive pots landing at random. Players do not need to form a particular symbol combination to trigger a progressive prize. They can win a jackpot even on spins that result in no wins within the main game. Furthermore, one’s bet size is irrelevant although your chances decrease if you bet small.

Things to Keep in Mind before Playing Progressive Slots

Things You Need to Know

Delaying Play Does Not Improve Your Odds of Landing the Jackpot

Several things bear consideration before you log into your online casino account and start spinning the reels fiercely in hopes of becoming a millionaire. When on the hunt for huge progressive wins, some people wait out until the jackpot reaches a certain level. Conversely, they would avoid slots that have recently dropped their jackpots, reasoning that the pot is unlikely to land again so soon.

The underlying reality is the odds of winning the progressive prize remain the same on each spin regardless of how fat the jackpot has gotten. After all, a slot machine has no way of knowing when a player has won and how much. The only exceptions to this rule are the Thinggames that yield mystery jackpots.

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Progressive Slots with the Largest Jackpot Wins

Your hands are probably already itching to set the reels in motion and try to win yourself a life-changing jackpot. Have a look at the games that have yielded the highest progressive prizes thus far so that you know what to play the next time when you visit your favorite online casino.

Microgaming’s Mega Moolah
NetEnt’s Mega Fortune
Playtech’s Age of the Gods
Yggdrasil’s Joker Millions
Microgaming’s Major Millions