When picking the proper video slot to play, newcomers usually turn to games with huge possible payouts, popular themes, and the overall visual appearance of the slot. As for more experienced punters, they know that they need to turn their attention to more important aspects.
Selecting the best online slot for the biggest possible payout includes several significant conditions. We have written about the importance of the RTP and volatility in the past. Apart from these two factors, gamers need to inform themselves about the hit frequency in the game before they start spinning the reels. In this text, we will try to explain the importance of hit frequency in online slots.
Factors to Pay Attention to When Choosing Slots
Most players pay attention only to the volatility of the game and the Return to Player. The RTP is important because it gives you the theoretical return. For example, if the RTP is 96%, it means that the game will pay back $96 for every $100 wagered. This is why gamers prefer video slots that have higher RTPs. That is in theory. You don’t know when the game will pay you back your money.
House edge is also something to be considered when selecting the game. It is usually closely connected to the RTP. When the RTP is high, the house edge is low, and vice versa. As mentioned above, if the slot comes with an RTP of 96%, the remaining 4% represents house edge.
As for the volatility, it gives you more information on how often and how big the payouts would be in the short run. Low volatility slots will pay more often. However, the wins will not be that high. For example, if your bet is $1, and you win $0.50, even though you got a winning spin, you are still losing your money.
Medium volatility games come with a higher risk of landing non-winning spins, but also with greater payouts. Most video slots offer medium variance, and it is considered the best mixture of how often you land wins and how big the wins are.
When talking about highly volatile games, expect long dry spells and short bursts of huge payouts. If Lady Luck is on your side, you can land awesome wins. High volatility games usually come with enormous max payouts.
What is Hit Frequency?
If we say that the RTP offers the broadest explanation of how much the slot pays in percentage and that the volatility of the game gives you more information on how often and how big your payouts may be, one might think that there is nothing more they need to know about the game. However, there last important aspect is the hit frequency.
When you look at the game info, you will usually find the volatility, RTP, and hit frequency. Of course, not all games come with all this information. Hit frequency gives you a closer insight into how often you land a winning spin.
It is not that easy to determine the hit frequency range for thousands and thousands of video slots that are on offer in the iGaming industry. For example, we will use video slots that come with hit frequencies between 20% and 30%. Spin the reels of any game 100 times. In theory, the ones that have a 20% hit frequency will deliver 20 winning spins. Games with a 30% hit frequency offer 30 winning spins for every 100 played.
The Importance of Hit Frequency
It is important to know that the hit frequency of any game does not affect either the RTP or the house edge of any game. These factors are based on the average percentage of the money that the video slot will pay. On the other hand, the RTP affects the hit frequency in the long run. It does not matter whether the game has a high or low-frequency rate, it will not be able to change the RTP.
If you are wondering whether to play games with higher hit frequency or not, it is also difficult to give you proper advice. If we use hit frequency as the most important factor of the selected video slot, then players should choose games with a higher hit frequency.
On the other hand, high hit frequency will not secure you big payouts. It is similar to the volatility of the game. Place a bet of $1. In theory, a 30% hit frequency will secure you 3 winning spins for 10 played spins. However, payouts in these three winning spins could be lower than the bet. Despite the fact you have landed a winning spin, you lost money.
Also, be aware of the fact that the hit frequency is not determined on 10 spins, but on hundreds of thousands and millions of spins, and then they take the average of landing winning spins. What we are trying to say is that, although the hit frequency is high, you might not be the beneficiary of the winning spins.
You may spin the reels 100 times and land a small number of winning spins. Other players could have more luck and have a much greater number of winning spins. On average, these spins display a 30% hit frequency. Don’t understand us wrong. Hit frequency is one of the important factors players need to consider when selecting the desired game, but just bear in mind that, sometimes, numbers may be deceiving.
Conclusion
Taking everything under consideration, hit frequency needs to be considered one of the most important factors in online slots. On the other hand, you should not base your selection only on this particular aspect. To have the clearest picture of how to pick your video slot, apart from hit frequency, consider the RTP, house edge, and the volatility of the game.
Note that not all casinos and software providers are willing to display the hit frequency of a particular game, but a large number of video slots will have the hit frequency written somewhere in the rules of the game.
