Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays: Slot Overview

It may sound like a pointless question, but some people genuinely aren’t that bothered about becoming millionaires. Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman is a famous example: he solved the Poincaré conjecture, one of the Millennium Prize Problems many believed was going nowhere. For that, he was offered medals and $1 million—both of which he refused. Where Perelman is these days isn’t totally clear, though it’s safe to assume he’s still working on brain-melters that would leave most of us seeing double.

For the majority of players, though, the idea of landing a million is very appealing—and it’s a possibility in Big Time Gaming’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays. Unlike the original title, you don’t need to play at max stake to have a shot. That’s because Who Wants To Be A Millionaire became the second slot after Bonanza Megapays to join the Megapays progressive jackpot network. It may not have the same universal recognition as Mega Moolah yet, but with BTG’s built-in fanbase, it could be only a matter of time.

A huge hit in the UK and adapted into multiple versions worldwide, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has contestants answering multiple-choice questions to climb a prize ladder with each correct response. Reach the final step and you walk away as a cash millionaire. That structure was used in the original slot via the Free Spins Gamble feature, and in most respects, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays keeps the same feature set as before. Alongside the familiar gameplay, the presentation is also largely unchanged, with the reels framed by the show’s dark, stripped-back studio look.

Most spins play out on a classic Megaways driven setup featuring 6 reels with 2-7 symbols plus a single horizontal bonus reel containing 4 symbols. Each spin reshuffles the reel layout, creating 324 to 117,749 ways to win. The numbers are close to the original too: RTP is a touch higher at 96.38%, although 9.44% of that is allocated to the new jackpots. Volatility stays extremely high, especially in free spins, which feel slightly less impactful now since the Megapays feature can only trigger in the base game. With bets ranging from 40 p/c to $/€30 per spin, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays runs smoothly across devices.

The paytable includes 10 standard symbols: low-paying royals from 9-A plus four gem icons. The shining diamond leads the pack, paying 50x the bet for six of a kind, while the other three gems return between 2 to 7.5x. Trippy wild symbols show up on the lower bonus reel and substitute for any paying symbol to help form winning ways.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays: Slot Features

With “Megapays” right there in the name, plenty of players will be taking the hot seat hoping the game delivers on that promise. While you’re waiting for the Megapays feature to appear, there are reaction wins, free spins with a progressive win multiplier, and the Hot Seat Free Spins Gamble.

Reactions act as Megaways’ sidekick and activate after every standard ways win. Winning symbols are removed from the game grid and replaced as new or existing symbols drop into the gaps. Reactions keep chaining, stripping out back-to-back wins until no further payouts land.

Land 3 Millionaire scatters to trigger 8 free spins and enter the Hot Seat Free Spins Gamble. If more than 3 scatters set it off, you begin the Hot Seat Gamble from a higher position. To gamble, players select the ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, or ‘D’ option and hit ‘Final Answer’. A correct choice moves you up the ladder, an incorrect one drops you down, and it’s possible to lose all free spins. Rung 2 and rung 7 serve as safety nets, guaranteeing 10 or 20 free spins through a free gamble.

As in the TV show, you have 3 lifelines available. ‘Phone a Friend’ highlights the most likely correct answer, ‘50-50’ removes two wrong options, and ‘Ask the Audience’ displays the answer probabilities. Or, if you’d rather not risk those free spins, players can collect them by selecting the ‘Walk Away’ button.

During free spins, a win multiplier joins the mix. It begins at x1 and increases by +1 with no cap after every reaction. Scatters only appear on the bonus reel in free spins. Hitting 3 or 4 scatters grants +4 or +8 extra free spins.

And now to the main attraction for jackpot hunters: the 4 jackpots that make up the Megapays feature. Megapays can randomly activate on any paid spin, switching the setting from the game show to a bright, Las Vegas-style backdrop. One pay symbol is highlighted (from 9-A) as the Megapays symbol. After that, a 6×7 sized reel set spins, and each time the chosen symbol lands it is collected. When no additional Megapays symbols appear, the bonus game ends, and the total collected determines the jackpot—provided at least 4 have been gathered.

• Collecting 4-7 Megapays symbols awards the Mini jackpot (€100 seed value)
• Collecting 8-11 Megapays symbols awards the Midi jackpot (€1,500 seed value)
• Collecting 12-14 Megapays symbols awards the Major jackpot (€20,000 seed value)
• Collecting 15+ Megapays symbols awards the Mega jackpot (€300,000 seed value)

Note that during the Megapays feature, matching symbols on the grid don’t award wins, and the reaction mechanic is disabled. The sole objective is collecting as many Megapays symbols as you can.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays: Slot Verdict

There’s been speculation that the original Who Wants To Be A Millionaire slot may have been intended as a jackpot game at some stage, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. Anyone left wanting had to wait three years, but now the concept is finally here—combining the tense hot seat experience with Megapays in a single title. Because Megapays is essentially bolted on, the underlying gameplay in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays feels virtually unchanged.

As with the earlier Who Wants To Be A Millionaire slot, the Hot Seat Free Spins Gamble remains a real roll of the dice. Miss the very first question and you immediately forfeit the 8 free spins you just earned, which is hardly enjoyable. On the flip side, reaching 50 spins is substantial and won’t come easily—especially when the so-called lifelines can feel as unhelpful as they are helpful. Still, it’s hard not to test your luck because free spins can deliver up to 72,310 times the stake, versus a still-impressive 14,600x in the base game. The drawback is that Megapays can’t trigger during free spins, even though that’s the main reason many players will queue up for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Megapays.

It’s still got ground to cover before it can rival something like Mega Moolah, where the Mega Jackpot seeds at $1,000,0000. Even so, Big Time Gaming is clearly making a serious push into the jackpot space, helped by a notably higher RTP and much more engaging mechanics. After upgrading arguably the most influential Megaways slot ever (Bonanza Megapays) and now attaching Megapays to one of TV’s biggest game shows, the studio is bringing out the heavy artillery to attract jackpot-focused players.