If you love playing pokies and you’re aiming sky high, then it’s those progressive jackpot pokies that you should set your eyes on; also known as progressive slots, these games look like your usual video slot or online pokie machine, but have one main distinguishing characteristic – they are linked to a huge jackpot that keeps on increasing until it is won!
Thanks to the increasing number of online casinos and players these days, some progressive jackpot slots pay out millions of dollars in winnings to lucky winners.
In this guide, we’ll introduce you to the top 8 progressive jackpot slots online that you can play from New Zealand, so you can start aiming for that jackpot!
Where to play Progressive Slots from New Zealand
There are plenty of online casinos that offer numerous progressive jackpot slots as part of their pokies collection. To play the games we’ll be recommending below, we suggest joining the below operators.
Top 8 Progressive Jackpot Pokies
And now, let’s get down to our hand-picked list of top progressive slots that you can play, based on their RTP and payout potential. These pokies can be played at multiple online casinos, and players will contribute to the pot wherever they play them from. It is for this reason that they pay out such massive amounts, as there are always hundreds of players spinning on them at any given time.
1. Mega Moolah (Microgaming)
Microgaming’s Mega Moolah is the first progressive slot to come to mind, and for good reason. This game has been around for years, and has set world records when it comes to its jackpot payouts. The Mega Moolah progressive jackpot always starts at £1 million, but usually reaches staggering amounts before it is won. The highest prize was paid out in 2018, when a player won €18,915,872.81 (equivalent to about NZD$32,829,081 at the time of writing this article).
To win the Mega Moolah Jackpot, you need to trigger the Jackpot Wheel, which can happen at any random moment. The odds of triggering this wheel increase the larger your bet size is, however, it is still possible to trigger it with any bet size. Once you’re in, you will have the opportunity of winning 1 of 4 progressive jackpots: the Mini, the Minor, the Major and the Mega. While the Mini and the Minor can fall quite often and pays out rather small amounts, the Major and the Mega pay out huge amounts. Besides the jackpots, Mega Moolah also comes with free spins and a multiplier wild.
The Mega Moolah RTP is on the low side, at just 88.12% during the base game. However, once you also factor in the jackpot payouts, the RTP is actually higher, at around 96.92%.
2. Major Millions (Microgaming)
Another ‘major’ title by Microgaming, Major Millions is a military-themed slot connected to a huge progressive jackpot. It’s a straightforward 5-reel, 15 payline pokie game, with the only additional features being the wild and wild multipliers (where all wins including a wild are multiplied by 3). Players can choose how many paylines they want activated on each spin, but to win the Major Millions jackpot, they need to have the 15th payline activated, as the progressive jackpot will fall if you get 5 wild symbols on this payline.
Major Millions comes with an RTP of 89.37% and is a low volatility slot that can offer steady payouts throughout. The Major Millions jackpot normally pays out well over 1 million dollars.
3. Hall of Gods (NetEnt)
Hall of Gods is a Norse-themed progressive slot which comes with 3 jackpots: the Mini, the Midi and the Mega. Featuring the gods Thor, Loki, Freya and Odin, Hall of Gods takes you on an adventure above the clouds in search of riches – should the gods favour you! To win the Hall of Gods jackpot, you need to trigger the bonus game by landing 3 bonus symbols, then you’ll get a chance to smash the shield with Thor’s hammer and reveal at least 3 matching symbols (which can either be cash amounts or one of the jackpots).
While the Mini and Midi jackpots are local jackpots that differ from one casino to another, the Mega jackpot is progressive, and starts at £500,000 (although the average win on Hall of Gods is around NZD$8,000,000!) Hall of Gods also comes with a free spins feature where all payouts are trebled, and has a decent RTP of 95.7%.
4. Mega Fortune (NetEnt)
Another NetEnt classic, Mega Fortune has been around for years, and has remained popular thanks to its huge jackpots and entertaining gameplay. The game comes with a free spins round with a multiplier of up to 5x and a payout potential of 2162x (not counting the jackpot!). There are 3 progressive jackpots connected to Mega Fortune, which can be accessed through the bonus game. The game plays out in the form of a wheel that awards cash prizes or jackpots. To win a Mega Fortune jackpot, you need to land on a series of arrows that will take you to them, rather than a coin win.
Besides the jackpot amounts, which typically pay out millions of dollars, Mega Fortune has a great hit rate of 52.6%, and provides substantial payouts throughout thanks to its wild symbols and free spins bonus. The theoretical RTP is set to 96.6%, which is higher than your average progressive slot, making it a great choice for players who would like to aim for a jackpot while ensuring decent wins in the process!
5. Age of the Gods (Playtech)
Age of the Gods is actually a series of progressive jackpot slots by Playtech. Still, the original Age of The Gods remains the most popular of them all. The game has the Greek Gods Athena, Poseidon, Hercules and Zeus as its main protagonists and has 4 progressive jackpots, whose seeds start at the following amounts:
- Power Jackpot – £50
- Extra Power Jackpot – £500
- Super Power Jackpot – £5,000
- Ultimate Power Jackpot – £100,000
The overall RTP of Age of the Gods slot is 95.02% and volatility is medium to high. What we love about it is that you can still get really high payouts, even if you don’t win a jackpot. In fact, you can win 50,000x your stake if you’re lucky with the free spins multipliers, and up to 10,000x the stake in the base game alone!
6. Cash Splash (Microgaming)
Another Microgaming favourite, Cash Splash is appropriately named to denote the riches in store for lucky winners. The slot is reminiscent of the old pokie machines, with its traditional fruit, bars and 7 symbols, but is linked to a massive progressive jackpot. Similar to Major Millions, the Cash Splash Jackpot can be won if you land 5x bonus symbols on the 15th payline, at the maximum bet level of just $3. However, its relatively low RTP of 91.47%, doesn’t quite make it our favourite progressive slot.
7. Treasure Nile (Microgaming)
Treasure Nile is a straightforward, Egyptian-themed progressive pokie. There are no special features in Treasure Nile, besides the wild symbols, scatter pays, and the possibility to win the progressive jackpot. This jackpot starts from $40,000 but usually pays out much more! To win the Treasure Nile progressive jackpot, players must land on 5 Pharaoh symbol on the 9th line, which requires them to play the slot at the maximum bet level. Its mostly a game for those jackpot hunters out there who are feeling lucky, and comes with a rather low RTP of 92.11%
8. Joker Millions (Yggdrasil)
Yggdrasil’s most popular progressive slot, Joker Millions is an attractive 5-reel pokie featuring the cheerful character of the Joker, alongside other classic pokie machine fruit symbols. Quite recently, in September 2019, a player won €3 million on Joker Millions, although the seed starts at €100,000.
To win the Joker Millions jackpot, you first need to land on 5 joker symbols. You’ll then get5 mystery wins ranging from 5 to 2,5000 coins, whereas the jokers will freeze into place. The reels will then keep spinning for as long as a joker symbol lands, and each new joker will stick on the reels for the remaining respins. If you manage to fill up all the symbol positions with 15 jokers, you’ll win the Joker Millions progressive jackpot. This pokie game also comes with a multiplier feature of up to 5x, which is awarded for filling columns with the same symbol.
What are Progressive Jackpot Slots?
Progressive slots are linked to one or more jackpots that increase every time that a player makes a bet and doesn’t win. These pokies can look like any standard slot machine, and may feature a different number of paylines, reels and a host of other features. The only distinguishing trait is that on top of the reels, you’ll be able to view a jackpot meter, which keeps on increasing.
How do Progressive Slots work?
As players spin on a progressive slot game, a percentage of each bet goes towards the jackpot. Given the large number of casinos that offer the same progressive jackpot game, the jackpot amount can increase quite fast, especially if you’re playing one of the most popular progressive slots (such as the ones listed above). However, it takes a lot of luck to win the jackpot in all of these games, as the odds are very low, and similar to those that come with winning a lottery. When the jackpot is won, the amount resets to the seed value, which is a predetermined amount at which the jackpot restarts to grow.
The Return to Player percentage of progressive jackpot slots tends to be lower than that of your typical online pokie. A percentage of this RTP is always made up of the jackpot (i.e. it takes into account jackpot wins in the long term), however, given the low odds of actually winning the jackpot, the actual RTP for non-jackpot wins is typically lower.
What makes the Best Progressive Slots?
Given the very low odds on jackpot wins, we believe that the best progressive slots are those that can offer steady and decent sized payouts even if the jackpot isn’t won. We therefore favour those progressive pokies that come with free spins or other bonus rounds that are not too difficult to trigger, or those that can reward you with additional prizes as you play. It is for this reason, for example, that we prefer Playtech’s Age of Gods and NetEnt’s Mega Fortune over other jackpot slots like Cash Splash and Treasure Nile.
Of course, the jackpot amount also makes a huge difference, which is why Microgaming’s Mega Moolah remains one of the best progressive slots ever. What’s more, whereas most progressive slots require you to stake the maximum, you can win the Mega Moolah jackpot even with the minimum bet, though the odds of this happening are lower. Ultimately, we think it’s all about standing a good chance of hitting big wins, while still having that slim possibility of winning that mega jackpot.
Play the best progressive jackpot pokies from New Zealand!
And now, it’s time to discover some of these progressive games yourself. We advise playing them at a reputable online casino that guarantees secure payouts and a good level of customer service – in case you win that jackpot, you’d want to know that your money is in good hands and that you can safely withdraw it! Check out our full list of casinos in New Zealand here, or pick a casino featured on this page to start playing some of these jackpot pokies with a welcome bonus!