Volatility is one of the slot buzzwords you might have heard of. We know that a lot of people focus on the return to player (RTP), but volatility can actually shape your gameplay strategy more. If you’ve ever wondered how volatility affects what you’re doing on slot games, read on for our complete guide that covers everything from what volatility means and how it affects your gameplay to how it compares to RTP and hit frequency.
What Volatility in Slot Games Means
Slot volatility is a metric that basically tells you how a game distributes its wins. It doesn’t tell you how often you will win, and you can’t use it to judge the outcome of your game. Volatility is programmed into a game and applies to tens of thousands of games, not your individual gaming session.
Low-volatility online slots typically pay smaller amounts more frequently, and high-volatility slots concentrate more of their potential returns into less frequent, larger payouts.
If you’re playing a low-volatility classic title like Starburst, your balance might go up and down in smaller increments. With a highly volatile game, you could go through a long streak of absolutely nothing before suddenly hitting a much bigger payout.
It doesn’t mean one has better odds than the other.
Two slots could both have a 96% RTP and be completely different in terms of volatility.
How Volatility Shapes Your Gameplay Strategy
No strategy can change what symbol combination the RNG gives you, but volatility can definitely change how you approach playing.
The biggest thing we’d say is your stake size.
This is hypothetical, but if you’ve got $100 to play with and you’re playing a highly volatile slot, constantly betting $5 per spin probably won’t give you much gameplay if you hit one of those horrible dry spells. That’s 20 spins if absolutely nothing comes back.
Lowering your stake gives your bankroll more room to handle the swings.
Low-volatility games are slightly different. More frequent smaller payouts can keep your balance going for long, although obviously there’s absolutely no guarantee that will happen during your session.
And sometimes your strategy is simply choosing the volatility that suits how you want to play. Look towards the lower end if you want more consistent action.
Can Slot Volatility Decide The Outcome of Your Game?
Volatility can’t decide whether your next spin wins or loses. The random number generator (RNG) and the game’s underlying mathematical model do that.
Volatility instead determines the distribution of possible outcomes over time.
An easy way to think of it is that high volatility doesn’t make the RNG suddenly decide you’ve lost enough and you’re due a massive win. And low volatility doesn’t guarantee you’ll continuously hit small payouts.
You could theoretically open a high-volatility slot and hit a massive bonus almost immediately. Or you could play a low-volatility game and have a terrible session.
Is Slot Volatility, RTP, or Hit Frequency More Important?
They’re all important for completely different reasons.
RTP tells you the theoretical percentage of wagers returned to players over the long run. A 96% RTP doesn’t mean you’ll get $96 back after wagering $100 in one session. It’s calculated across a massive sample of gameplay.
Volatility tells you how those potential returns are distributed.
And then you’ve got hit frequency, which is how frequently a spin produces any payout. A hit doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve made a profit on that spin either. You could wager $1, win $0.50 back, and it still counts as a hit.
For long-term theoretical value, we’d probably look at RTP. For deciding what type of gaming experience you want and how aggressively you should size your stakes, volatility tells you more.
Realistically, look at all three.
Volatility is an interesting metric that you can use to understand how a game is programmed to distribute wins. You can’t use it to decide if you’re going to win. Looking at all three metrics – RTP, volatility, and hit frequency can tell you how you can wager and what may happen.
