Medium-Variance Slots

Medium-variance slots offer a good balance when you want to extend your slot session span with enough wins to keep you going and even bring some profit back home.

Indeed, slots with medium volatility offer a better experience than high-variance or low variance slots. They tend to be a lot more predictable and consistant.

Slot volatility (also called slot variance) is a measure of how often a slot is likely to hit a winning combination and consequently, its average payout size. It is not to be confused with RTP which is the money the machine returns from all the wagers received over time.

To know if medium-variance slots are for you, we take a closer look at this guide.

Medium-Variance Slots Explained

With medium-variance slots, you have a moderate win-loss ratio. Playing these games can result in a relatively balanced spread between winning or losing spins. Payouts among medium-variance slots are well rounded where you can triple your bankroll in a few spins or get up to 150% of your total wager after several spins. In regards to hit frequency, mid-variance slots have different win rates.

Every slot machine has a different win-loss percentage called variance. Playing high-variance slots tends to increase the chance of losing most of your bets, but you are likely to get substantial gains on your wins. Low-variance slots are the opposite where you win most of your bets and receive a low payout.

10 Best Medium-Variance Slots

Here are our recommended medium-volatility slot games.

Name	Developer	Variance	RTP
Twin Joker	Stake Logic	Medium	97.79%
Hell's Kitchen	NetEnt	Low to Medium	96.07%
Guns N' Roses	NetEnt	Low to Medium	96.98%
Diamond Strike	Pragmatic Play	Medium	96.48%
Mystery Joker	Play'n Go	Medium	96.00%
Carnival Queen	Thunderkick	Medium	96.10%
Koi Princess	NetEnt	Medium	96.00%
Reel Rush 2	NetEnt	Medium to High	95.53%
Count Duckula	Blueprint Gaming	Medium	93.34%
Satoshi's Secret	Endorphina	Medium	96.00%

1. Twin Joker (Stake Logic)

Twin Joker, , offers an RTP rate of 97.79% alongside balanced medium volatility.

A Supermeter feature in Twin Joker gives you more control over your chances of getting a large payout. You use your winning to activate the Supermeter in each spin at the cost of 20 coins. When this feature is active, you can randomly activate the Mystery Win or x2 Multiplier feature. True to its name, this game has twin reels with their own Supermeter feature. With two reels spinning together under one bet, you double your chances of matching the Joker symbol.

2. Hell's Kitchen (NetEnt)

Gordon Ramsay: Hell's Kitchen by the renowned slots have 6 flavorful features that play with the show's theme. Team Challenge Free Spins is one of these features where two 5x3 reels are active during this mode, and you need to choose one reel. Various Order Up features can appear during this mode, including a 2x and 3x bet multiplier and the Team Wilds feature. These features are colored to indicate whether the red or blue reel will have the bonus active.

Hell's Kitchen is quite a fun slot game for those who love themed and branded slots. It boasts a 96.07% RTP rate and a low to medium volatility level.

3. Guns N' Roses (NetEnt)

Guns N' Roses is embedding a generous 96.98% return-to-player payout rate alongside low-to-medium volatility. Within the base game of the Guns N' Roses slot game are three features that randomly trigger.

Appetite for Destruction Wild is one of these features, which creates an expanding wild symbol that covers the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th reel. Another random feature during the base game is the Solo Multiplier that randomly occurs during a winning spin. When you match any symbols, one of the symbols is turned into one of the different bet multipliers that can reach up to 10x your bet.

4. Diamond Strike (Pragmatic Play)

With a classic fruit-slot theme, Diamond Strike keeps it simple with two solid game modes, an RTP of 96.48%, and well-rounded mid-variance. During the Free Spins mode, Special Reels regularly appear during each free game. These reels are Stacked Wild Diamond symbols that substitute non-special symbols and have the highest possible payout.

Diamond Strike also has a progressive jackpot feature, which you can trigger when you match three of the Golden 7 symbol. During this feature, you win one of four jackpots upon revealing three of its designated symbol among 15 Diamond symbols.

5. Mystery Joker (Play'n Go)

Mystery Joker, a Play'n Go hit, takes a straightforward approach with its 3x3 reel structure, 5-payline mechanism, 96% RTP, and medium volatility.

Mystery Joker has two solid features within its base game, such as the Free Spins mode, which gives you 10 free games. By matching the scatter symbol in this mode, you can extend the feature by getting up to 50 more free games. Mystery Win is another feature that instantly rewards you with a cash prize base on your bet amount and multiplier. With this feature, you can win up to 100x your bet on top of the possible matches you made when you triggered it.

6. Carnival Queen (Thunderkick)

One of Thunderkick's popular cascade reels slot, , has a whopping 4,096 pay ways mechanism and an Avalanche feature. This real money, medium-volatility slot game payouts at a giving 96.1% rate.

When you create matches in this game, all affected symbols are cleared from the reels to make way for new ones and make new matches. One interesting game feature is the Wild symbol during the bonus mode. When a Wild symbol is on the screen, and there are no possible matches to be made, the symbol explodes and clears the symbols diagonally and horizontally from it. This feature creates space for new symbols and gives you a chance to create a match.

7. Koi Princess (NetEnt)

Koi Princess is a with medium variance, offering a 96% return-to-player rate.

The Bonus Bet is an interesting feature of Koi Princess, where you increase the odds of triggering one of the Random features during the base game by paying your bet twice in one spin. One of these is the 5-Hit Feature, where five similar symbols are placed on each reel, including the wild symbol.

The Wild Reels feature can also occur during the base game, where two to five reels become Wild reels. You can also trigger the Random Wild feature, where 4 to 9 symbols are replaced with wild ones.

8. Reel Rush 2 (NetEnt)

Taking on a candy puzzle-game theme, features an interesting 5x5 reel structure with a 3,125-ways-to-win paytable. It is also powered by a decent 95.53% RTP rate and medium-to-high volatility.

When creating a match, you are treated to a free re-spin while opening 4 of 12 locked squares within the reels. If you can get six consecutive matches, you trigger the free spins mode.

You gain super tokens each time you break a block or trigger any of the random features. By gaining more super tokens, you increase your likelihood of accessing the Super Free Spins mode instead of the normal one. Super Free Spins has a progressive bet multiplier that increases each time you match symbols or trigger a random event.

9. Count Duckula (Blueprint Gaming)

Fans of the British cartoon, Count Duckula, will enjoy a feature-rich slot where the base game has 4 random features. One of these features is the Nanny's Colossal Wild which places a 3x3 wild symbol in the middle of the reels. The game by Blueprint Gaming offers a relatively low RTP of 93.34% with mid-variance.

Count Duckula also has five bonus games to trigger at random. Dr. Von Goosewing Free Spins, for example, provides you with 10 free spins along with a sticky wild symbol that can land anywhere on the reels.

10. Satoshi's Secret (Endorphina)

mixes hacker culture with Bitcoin trading with its bonus feature and 96% RTP. In Trading Bonus, you predict whether you will match a rise or fall of the three different currencies.  When your predicted currency movement appears on the 3x3 reel slot, you gain a massive payout.

QWERTY Bonus mode is another feature of Satoshi's Secret where you choose which accounts to hack and earn a cash prize. Each account has different difficulty levels where the high-risk choices reward you with bigger cash prizes if you can hack it.

Make sure to check out our crypto gambling section if you love bitcoin slots!

Advantages of Medium-Variance Slots

There are two major benefits of medium-volatility slots that should be noted.

Decent Risk vs Reward

Volatility among these slots provides you with a chance to double your total bankroll with slightly minimum risks than high-variance slots. Several medium-variance slots even offer progressive jackpots that can reach more than half a $1 million. Medium-variance slots are suitable for players who want substantial returns to their bet with a slight edge in their favor.

Better Bankroll Management

Because of the decent risks present among medium-variance slots, you can easily set a budget to achieve various goals. These goals include winning the highest possible payout of the slot or spend as much time on your favorite game as possible.

These two major advantages should form the basis of our slot strategy.

Disadvantages of Medium-Variance Slots

While medium-variance slots offer a good risk-vs-reward rate, there are two factors as to why players avoid them.

Lack of High Jackpot Payouts

Payout rates are the defining factor when talking about medium-variance vs high-variance slots. You have the likes of Mega Moolah that has a minimum progressive jackpot amount of $1 million. Other high-variance slots offer massive payouts with their game features or high-valued symbols. Players who want to win a life-changing fortune may find medium-variance payouts to be disappointing.

Wins are Not Consistent

Unlike low-variance slots, the percentage of wins for several spins is inconsistent among medium-variance slots. There are periods where you experience a period of losing spins or get winning spins peppered across an hour of gameplay. On the other hand, low-variance slots offer a consistent period of winning spins over a certain period.

Low-Volatility Slots: FAQ

Answers to the most common questions about slot games with low variance.

Players enjoy the benefit of both high-variance and low-variance games with medium-variance slots in terms of payout rate and winning percentage. There is also a rich selection of medium-variance titles available in various physical and online casinos.