RTP Slots Guide: How Do Payout Rates Affect Your Potential

Read everything you need to know about online casino and slot RTP (Return To Player) Including Top RTP Slots list from Yggdrasil!

What does RTP mean? If you’ve ever scrolled through an online slots review or loaded up a casino game, you’ll have probably come across these three letters. Often accompanied by a number, RTP is a way of ranking online slot machines. However, in reality, these percentages are more than just a scoring system.In fact, RTP online casino values underpin the entire industry. From the way sites are regulated to the decisions you make as a player, the RTP of slots are extremely important. So, with that in mind, we’ve compiled a complete guide to RTP casino scores and all they entail.

What Does the RTP on Slots Mean?

In technical terms, RTP stands for Return to Player. This return rate is always expressed as a percentage because it’s based on 100. In other words, an RTP score is the amount you can expect to win per 100 credits wagered. Breaking this down, we could say that one of the top RTP slots online has a score of 98%. Based on the idea of wagering 100 credits, this RTP suggests you’ll win back 98 credits for every 100 wagered.

Now, the point we need to make here is that all RTP casino game scores are theoretical. We’ll explain why in the following sections. However, at this point, it’s important to understand that you won’t always win XX credits for every 100 wagered. Therefore, if we’re going to create our own definition of a slot’s RTP, it would be this:

RTP casino scores are the amount of time you can expect to, in theory, when you play a game over a long period of time.

RTP Slots in Practice

Building on our definition of RTP online casino scores, let’s take a look at a real life example. Scrolling through the Yggdrasil slots catalogue, the following spinners have two of the best potential return rates:

Vikings Go Berzerk (96.1% RTP) vs. Wilhelm Tell (97% RTP)

Looking at the above, you can see that Wilhelm Tell has a better return rate. Based on that score alone, you can expect to win 97 credits per 100 wagered vs. 96 credits when you play Vikings Go Berzerk.

However, as we’ve said, these figures a theoretical and based on an average payout over multiple bets. Because of that, you could play each game five times and find that you actually win more on Vikings Go Berzerk.

Even though that sounds counterintuitive, it’s the nature of slot RTPs. Yes, the scores are based on solid mathematics. However, they aren’t hard and fast rules. To put it another way, the percentage scores don’t mean you’ll win at a set frequency every session.

The Top RTP Slots from Yggdrasil

Jokerizer Slot– 98% RTP:

As well as the best RTP, Jokerizer stands out among the top Yggdrasil slots because of its potential payouts. Thanks to a combination of mystery wins and decision-based bonuses, you have the potential to win thousands when you make the right moves.

Beauty & the Beast Slot – 97.1% RTP:

When you enter this fairy tale world, you can win up to €100,000 through a combination of fixed wins, free spins and bonuses. In fact, what makes the RTP of this slot so good is its golden bet. By paying a premium, you’ll have the opportunity to use one of three superpowers to boost your potential win rate.

Tut’s Twister Slot – 97.1% RTP:

An Yggdrasil classic, Tut’s Twister is up there with the top RTP slots in the business. Helping this game’s return rate are two special features. For rolling in two or more wilds, you’ll unlock a series of spins and respins. From there, hieroglyphics will call up the mysteries of Ancient Egypt and bestow upon you a selection and random bonuses.

Nitro Circus Slot – 97.1% RTP:

For a slot where the action is as fast on the reels as off it, you need Nitro Circus. Taking place inside a stunt car arena, this game requires a combination of timing and skill. Indeed, when you select the right cars and the right stunts, you’ll can perform tricks that wow the crowd and unlock prizes worth over €250,000!

Dark Vortex Slot – 97% RTP:

When you slip inside Dark Vortex, the standard RTP is 96.5%. However, once you move further into the darkness, the right symbols will actually improve your potential return rate. By rolling in two vortex symbols, the reels will expand and the number of ways to win will jump to 3,125. When this dynamic comes into play, the RTP will increase to 97%, meaning you have a better shot at winning upwards of €360,000!

Baron Samedi Slot – 97% RTP:

When you meet the Baron, you’ll be greeted with a slot RTP of 97%. This payout potential is generated when you roll the dice in unison with the reels. Put simply, as you move around a magical boardgame, cards will be added to your collection. The more you hold, the better your chances of banking jackpots worth 25,000 coins become.

Wilhelm Tell Slot – 97% RTP:

Released in 2019, Wilhelm Tell is one of Yggdrasil’s most innovative creations. Unlike standard spinners, this game has a variable RTP. This means the type of bets you make will increase or decrease your payout potential. For serious players, that’s fantastic as you can boost your payout potential to 97% with the right moves.

Holmes & the Stolen Stones Slot – 96.8% RTP:

The only thing that’s not a mystery about this game are the possibilities it offers. The RTP score is great, but what’s even better about Holmes & the Stolen Stone is the way certain symbols help you piece together clues and solve crimes worth thousands.

Winter Berries Slot – 96.7% RTP:

When you thaw out the reels of Winter Berries, you’ll soon see why this is a hot slot. Although the snow covered setting looks fantastic, this game stands out because of its stats. As well as a 96.8% RTP, Winter Berries slots have a hit frequency of 12.7% and a top payout worth over €300,000. In unison, these all add up to a huge amount of potential.

How Is the RTP on Slots Measured?

So far we’ve told you that the RTP of slots is based on a theoretical average. To explain this further, let’s defer to UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). As the regulator of all online casinos in the UK, the Gambling Commission is there to ensure every game is fair. It can only do this if it knows how developers generate their RTP scores.

With that being the case, the UKGC states that RTPs are “an average achieved over a significant number of game plays and not each time the gaming machine is played.”

What’s a “significant number of games”? This can vary, but it’s usually 10,000, 100,000 or more. For you, this means you’d have to play 10,000 or more games in order for your results to get somewhere close to the advertised RTP.

What this also means is that you can’t play a slot once and hope to have a certain return rate. This is due to a concept known as variance. Just as there are ups and downs in life, results in the slots world can vary.

For example, if a score of 98% was generated over the course of 100,000 games, the results up until that point will move above and below the expected return rate. Therefore, you should view your slots experience as a journey filled with ups and downs.

RTP vs. Hit Frequency

In tandem with RTP slots scores, you’ll find something known as hit frequency. This is percentage of the time you can expect to hit a winning combination. For example, if the score was 22, this suggests you’ll hit a winning combination 22% of the time. Again, it’s important to note that this score is an average based on multiple games. Therefore, you can’t say you’ll roll in a win each time you play.

What you can do, however, is use RTP scores and hit frequencies to guide your play. In fact, as we’ll show you in the conclusion of this guide, you can combine these ratings with a slot’s jackpot to make the best picks for your circumstances.

Why Are RTP Slots Scores Important?

As a gamer, your job is to find the best games for you. Whether that means a slot that pays out at a higher frequency or a game with the best jackpots, finding what works for you is imperative. One of the best ways to find your ideal game is to look at the following three things:

• RTP casino score
• Hit frequency
• Payouts/jackpot

Let’s assume you like slots that have the best overall return rate. In these situations, you’d want to pick a game with a high RTP and hit frequency. In contrast, you might prefer to sacrifice a steady stream of small wins in favour of waiting longer for a massive payout. If that’s the case, you would focus more on a slot’s jackpot rather that its RTP or hit frequency. Finally, if you want something in between, you’d choose the games that are strong in all three areas.

Of course, you’ll know by now that none of this is an exact science. Because RTP slots scores are based on theoretical averages, you can never be 100% accurate. However, they are a good indicator of your overall potential. So, when you combine RTPs with hit frequencies and prize boards, you can start to rank games according to how they suit your needs. What’s more, you can get a sense of why some titles are more popular than others.