Explained: Volatility In Online Slots 

Bullshark Games Andre Villandberg explains what we mean by online slots volatility and how you can decide if you’re a high or a low volatility player 

The volatility of an online slot has a huge impact on the experience you receive when playing the game.

High volatility offers a risk-it-all thrill ride where the wins can be massive but hard to come by, while lower volatility slots offer a more steady journey to some pretty solid payouts. 

To learn more about volatility in online slots, we spoke to Andre Villandberg, Founder of Bullshark Games. 

What do we actually mean by online slot volatility? 

Simply put, it comes down to risk vs reward. Some slots pay out large wins but infrequently (high volatility), while others pay out regularly but with smaller wins (low volatility). For those of us who create games, we almost see it as the personality of a slot.

Can give examples of the difference between low and high volatility slots?

With a higher volatility slot, you can have a really wild ride. It can give you big win stories worth bragging about or leave you with empty pockets pretty fast. 

A lower volatility slot offers a steadier ride which can go on for much longer but won’t let you experience the legendary wins either.

Let me give you two examples based on Bullshark slots:

Low Volatility Slot: In Merlin’s Mania, having more wild symbols and fewer multiplier activators means that the player is more often hitting smaller wins which keeps the action going.

Merlin’s Mania from Bullshark Games is a low volatility slot

High Volatility Slot: In Junkyard Kings, hitting multiple walking wilds together with the right grid multipliers will lead to huge payouts, but the player might need a lot of spins for everything to come together.

Junkyard Kings from Bullshark Games is a high volatility slot

Do high and low volatility slots appeal to different types of players? How does a player know which type best suits their preferred gameplay?

I would say so, yes. A player with an ‘all or nothing’ mindset, chasing that one massive win without worrying about burning through their balance, will thrive on high volatility slots where big hits come slightly more often than in low volatility games.

On the other hand, a player who’s in it for fun, wants to enjoy the spins, and make their balance last longer, will probably find low volatility slots a much better match.

A small tip… if the volatility isn’t displayed, check the paytable and look at the maximum win because if a game has a larger max win, like 10,000x or more, then it is more likely to be a high volatility slot.

How do studios actually set the volatility of the game?

It starts when we are thinking about features we want to include in the game. We usually consider how we want the feature to perform, how often it is triggered, what the most frequent results are from each trigger, how the average and big wins are achieved and so on.

During development, we usually tweak these aspects through many thousands of test spins before we are happy with the end result.

Do studios prefer to develop high volatility games? Or is it just as fun creating low volatility games?

True to our motto, ‘From Players to Players,’ we play quite a lot of slots ourselves too, and it’s the high volatility slots that really get our adrenaline pumping.

We enjoy the thrill of chasing big wins, so it’s more natural for us to design games that capture that high-stakes anticipation rather than focusing on lower volatility gameplay.

Another aspect is that higher volatility games tend to get more attention because players and streamers especially love the big win potential because that’s easier to market to their audiences.

In the end, we just want every game to feel exciting, no matter the volatility.

Tell us more about Coop Clash and why you chose to set the volatility to high for this game?

We wanted to have a game out before Easter, so we thought we would come up with an Easter game with a twist. The symbols include coloured eggs, but instead of having a regular cute Easter Bunny in the game, we decided to make the main character General Rabbit, who sits in a tank while invading a chicken coop.

We decided to go with high volatility as we wanted to create massive win potential where a single lucky spin could change everything. Mainly because of the reason described above – we just like those types of games a bit more ourselves.

Coop Clash also boasts moving wilds which don’t disappear when a winning combination is formed. What’s more, there’s an increasing win multiplier on top of that meaning that payouts can be pretty impressive with the right combination of symbols.

Anything else you’d like to tell our readers about Bullshark Games before we conclude?

At Bullshark Games, we’re not just trying to make slots, we’re making games that we love to play ourselves. We aim to have a unique twist in all of our games, whether it’s the mechanics, theme, or the bonus features.

If a player is looking for slots that will keep them on the edge of their seat with massive win potential and fresh, exciting gameplay, then they’ll love what we have coming in 2025 and beyond!