5 Lions Megaways (Pragmatic Play) RTP review: 96.50% (configurable)
Seven doors into the bonus
5 Lions Megaways (2021) rebuilds the series on a six-reel Megaways engine — up to 200,704 ways, with tumbling wins clearing and refilling the board — and expands the family's signature bonus menu to its logical extreme: seven selectable free-spins options, running from a pile of spins with humble wilds down to a brutal handful where wild multipliers reach 40×. It remains the most granular volatility dial Pragmatic has ever attached to one game, and picking your door is genuinely half the experience. It's also the only lion you can pay to see: a bonus buy exists (UK excepted), pricing its own certified figure.
Tumbles change the texture
The move to cascading Megaways matters as much as the menu. Where the original resolves each spin in one pass, wins here clear symbols and refill, so a single spin can chain — and in free spins, chains under a 40× wild are the events that reach toward the 5,000x cap. The ways count re-rolling every spin gives the base game more churn than any classic-reels lion, for better (constant motion) and worse (dead stretches feel deader). Volatility: 5/5, the series' highest rating. Stakes 0.20–125.
Numbers and family verdict
Builds: 96.50% default, 95.52%, 94.54% — screen-checkable as ever. Within the pride this is the modern-engine flagship: bigger cap than the original (5,000x vs 3,520x), more chaos than anything else wearing the brand, and the buy option its siblings lack. Gold still holds the outright ceiling (7,342x) on classic reels; Dance remains the shelter. Choose Megaways when you want the choice menu and the cascade engine in the same machine.
Pride audit
Mane attractions
- Seven-option bonus menu — the finest-grained volatility control around
- Tumbling 200,704-ways engine under 40× wilds
- Only 5 Lions with a bonus buy
Thorn in the paw
- 5/5 volatility — the family's harshest ride
- 5,000x cap still trails Gold's 7,342x
- Builds to 94.54% circulate
The wider savanna
Rivals and reference points at provider defaults.
| Slot | Provider | RTP | Volatility | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Lions Megaways (this slot) | Pragmatic Play | 96.50% | High | 5,000x |
| Sweet Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.51% | Med-High | 21,100x |
| Gates of Olympus | Pragmatic Play | 96.50% | High | 5,000x |
| Big Bass Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.71% | High | 2,100x |
| Sugar Rush | Pragmatic Play | 96.50% | High | 5,000x |
Megaways lion, judged
Skip if: the original's calmer 243-ways take on the same menu suits you better
5 Lions Megaways is the series' ideas taken to eleven: the volatility menu grown to seven doors, the reels replaced by tumbling ways, and a buy bolted on for the impatient. When the aggressive picks connect under cascades it produces the family's most electric sequences; between those moments it's as unforgiving as its 5/5 badge implies. The 96.50% default prices it fairly against its siblings — verify the build, pick your door with a plan, and don't let the seventh option flatter your bankroll.