Pragmatic Play · 2020 · measured RTP 85.8% · tested 2026-11-06
Christmas Carol Megaways
Across 50 bought Christmas Carol Megaways bonuses, free spins 11 to 15 earned 60.7% of the feature money, and the demo's 10,000 logged rounds returned 85.8% RTP against a declared 96.47%.
In numbers: the lab's RTP test on the official demo server measured 85.8% against 96.47% declared over 10,000 logged rounds; 40.0% of rounds paid; a natural bonus landed once per 769 rounds (13 in total) and a bonus round paid a median 32.6x the stake, mean 54.4x, trigger spin included; 50 bonus buys at 100x returned 0.94x of their price on average, 70% of them below the price; the biggest round paid 138.8x; the longest dry run was 17 spins.
Christmas Carol Megaways demo
United States·available at Cafe Casino
Same reels, real payouts
Cafe Casino runs the same Christmas Carol Megaways with the same math and adds a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · the demo stays free
Test card
10,000 spins · USD 2.00 bet · every request logged
| Spins | 10,000 |
| Bet | USD 2.00 |
| RTP declared | 96.47% |
| RTP measured | 85.78% (approximate 95% CI 78.3–93.3) |
| Hit frequency | 40% · every 2.5 |
| Dead streak max / avg | 17 / 2.51 |
| Median hit | 1.00x |
| Max win (no bonus round) | 120.0x · round 7294 |
| Free spins, natural | 13 · 1.3 bHz · every 769.2 spins · mean bonus round payout 54.4x stake |
| Balance start → end | 100,000 → 97,157 |
each run keeps its own spin log, CSV and raw server journal with checksums; the figures on this card combine all runs
Bonus buy lab
50 buys × 100x · USD 200 each
mean 0.94x · median 0.585× price (USD 116.90) · 35 of 50 below price · best 7.02x · worst 0.06x
| Spins per bonus (avg / min–max) | 15.3 / 15–20 |
| Retriggered | 6.0% |
| Multiplier total (avg / max) | 10 / 16 |
| Bonuses that paid nothing | 0% |
Three pocket watches landing during the feature add five spins, and nothing else extends it. Tickets 34, 40 and 42 each got that addition once and played 20 spins; the 13 natural bonuses and the other 47 purchases ran the 15 spins they started with.
- Spent
- USD 10,00050 × USD 200
- Returned
- USD 9,444.4094.44% · approximate 95% CI 64–125%
- Net
- −USD 555.60−2.8 buys
- Break-even or better
- 15 / 5030%
- Paid 2× price or more
- 5 / 5010%
- Price in base spins
- 100natural trigger every ~769 spins
One ticket equals 100 ordinary stakes. Natural bonuses occurred once per 769 ordinary rounds in this sample. Stakes multiplied by this interval measure gross wagering, not the net cost of obtaining a bonus. Purchase returns above include the complete purchased round and are divided by the ticket price.
Risk profile
how much bankroll this run needed
| 50 bets | bust at spin 333 |
| 100 bets | bust at spin 419 |
| 200 bets | bust at spin 912 |
One run, one bet size. A different session can bust earlier or never; treat this as a measured example, not a rule.
How it plays
7 rules screens from the game
Six reels make up the Christmas Carol Megaways board. Reel 1 and reel 6 carry as many as seven symbols each and the middle four as many as eight, the eighth sitting in a separate top row, which gives a ceiling of 200,704 ways. Matching symbols score only on neighbouring reels in an unbroken run that begins on reel 1. The hooded ghost already pays with two of a kind and reaches 50x the stake for six, while six of the green-robed ghost pay 5x, the silver-haired ghost 2.5x, the clerk 2x, the boy in a cap 1.5x, A and K 1.5x and Q, J and 10 1x each.
Scrooge's portrait is the Wild. It appears in the top row only, above reels 2 to 5, and replaces every symbol but the pocket watch, the Scatter, which may turn up on all six reels. Winning symbols are cleared after every win, the survivors sink to the bottom and fresh symbols are dropped in on top; the chain stops at the first screen without a win, and its wins are credited together.
At least four pocket watches trigger the feature, after which four cards are offered: 15 spins with the win multiplier starting at 1x, 10 starting at 5x, 5 starting at 10x, or a Mystery card with a random count and starting value. Five watches raise the three fixed counts to 19, 14 and 9, six to 23, 18 and 13. Inside the feature each tumble adds 1x to the multiplier and every tumble win is multiplied by its current value, which keeps what it has gained until the feature ends; three watches during the feature are worth five additional spins.
Turning on DOUBLE CHANCE TO WIN FEATURE takes the bet multiplier from 20x to 25x, loads the reels with extra Scatters to double the natural trigger chance, and locks the purchase until it is switched off. With it off, the purchase is priced at 100x the base bet and ends at the same four cards. Low volatility is the game's own rating, its RTP sits between 96.47% and 96.58%, bets sit in a USD 0.20 to USD 300 window, and a free spins round stops the moment it reaches 20,000x the bet, forfeiting whatever spins are left.
Megaways
Cascading reels
Wild symbol
Scatter symbol
Free spins
Multiplier
Retrigger
Bonus buy
Extra bet
Bet range USD 0.20 – 300 per spin · payouts read from the game's paytable at bet USD 2.00
Gallery
9 frames from the demo session
Verdict
Late spins held the money
Across the 50 bought bonuses, free spins 11 to 15 won USD 5,714.00, 60.7% of all free spins money, against 25.9% for spins 6 to 10 and 12.1% for spins 1 to 5. Each tumble lifts the multiplier one step and nothing takes it back, so the last third of the feature plays at whatever the first two thirds built: the median purchase topped out at x10, and none went past x16. Ticket 9 is the clearest case: its 15th spin paid 588x the stake at x14, and the meter closed the round at x15, inside a 701.9x round worth USD 1,403.80.
Bought at USD 200 apiece, the 50 tickets came back with USD 9,444.40, 94.44% of the money spent, and 35 of them landed under the price. All of those purchases, like the 13 natural bonuses, took the first card, 15 spins from x1. The 10 spins from x5, the 5 from x10 and the Mystery card were offered on every bonus and never played, and the DOUBLE CHANCE TO WIN switch stayed off for the whole series.
Thirteen natural bonuses arrived, one per 769.2 rounds on average, at a mean of 54.4x and a median of 32.6x. Their free spins money leaned the same way with less force, 43.2% of it on spins 11 to 15 and 16.2% on spins 1 to 5. Round 9667, the best of them at 138.8x, ran the other way: its meter stood at x10 after free spin 7, and spins 8 to 15 paid nothing.
- A 588x final free spin at x14 lifted ticket 9 to USD 1,403.80, 7.019x its price
- At 94.44% of their USD 10,000, the purchases ran 8.66 points above the 85.78% of the ordinary series
- Four rounds in ten paid something, 40.03% of 10,000, and no run of empty spins lasted beyond 17
- Two base-game spins went past 100x, 120.0x in round 7294 and 106.1x in round 4660
- The multiplier never got to x20, peaking at x14 in natural bonuses and x16 in purchases
- No free spins came for 1,929 rounds between the triggers in rounds 1648 and 3578
- Natural bonus rounds made only 8.2% of what the ordinary series paid out
Test record
10,000 rounds · 50 buys · open data · closed rig
One test run so far: a single session of the base game plus a separate series of bonus purchases on the official demo server, every request and response logged. When the game is tested again, the new run is added here and the figures on this page combine all runs into one sample.
- 10,000rounds logged
- 40%rounds that paid
- 139xbiggest round
- 1 / 769natural bonus rate
- 0.94xmean of 50 buys
- 17longest dry streak
01run Run 012026-11-06 measured return85.78%-10.7 pts vs declared
- 95% band
- 78.3–93.3%
- rounds that paid
- 40%
- biggest round
- 139x · round 9,667
- longest dry streak
- 17
- natural bonuses
- 13 · one per 769 rounds
- bonus buys
- mean 0.94x · median 0.585x · 70% below price
- balance start → end
- 100,000 → 97,157
- deepest drawdown
- 1,510x
10,000 ordinary rounds, including naturally triggered features, at a fixed USD 2 bet; 50 bonus buys at USD 200 each (100x); recorded on the official Pragmatic Play demo server (jurisdiction 99, RTP profile 96.47%); every request and response logged; test run 2026-11-06.
The test rig plays the official demo build over the network and records every server round: bet, win, intermediate steps (cascades, respins), free spins, collect. Screenshots and video were captured in a separate browser session and are not part of the statistical samples. The text was read against the log by an editor before publication. How we test → One test, step by step →
FAQ
7 questions · answered from the log
Does the Christmas Carol Megaways free spins multiplier reset between spins?
No. Under the 15-spin card the meter opens at x1, climbs by one with each tumble and holds that level for the remaining spins; across 50 bought bonuses the median top step was x10 and the highest x16, and 26 of the 50 tickets closed the round at x10 or above.
If the rules say 96.47%, why did the Christmas Carol Megaways demo return 85.78%?
Paid against USD 20,000 of stakes, the 10,000 ordinary rounds at USD 2.00 returned 85.78%. Its approximate 95% CI, 78.3% to 93.27%, ends below 96.47%; that range is a statement about this one sample, not a forecast for the next session or a test of fairness. Counting each trigger spin with its feature, the 13 natural bonuses supplied 8.2% of the payouts.
Does this Christmas Carol Megaways test include the 5X, 10X and Mystery free spins cards?
No. Each of the 13 natural bonuses and each of the 50 purchases took the first card, 15 free spins from x1, so the 10 spins from x5, the 5 spins from x10 and the Mystery card were never measured, and none of the figures on this page applies to them.
With no purchase, how many ordinary spins does a Christmas Carol Megaways free spins trigger take?
Thirteen natural triggers came in the ordinary series, 10,000 rounds at USD 2.00, putting one trigger in every 769.2 rounds on average, and they did not come evenly: after round 1648 the next trigger waited until round 3578.
What did 50 Christmas Carol Megaways bonus buys at 100x pay back?
94.44% of the USD 10,000 spent, USD 9,444.40 in all, and the median ticket came to USD 116.90. Take away ticket 9 and its USD 1,403.80, and the remaining 49 returned 0.8205x the USD 200 price on average.
Christmas Carol Megaways caps wins at 20,000x; did any test round come near it?
No. Ticket 9 was the biggest payout at 701.9x the stake, and the best ordinary round, natural bonus 9667, reached 138.8x; a free spins round that hit 20,000x would end on the spot.
Can I retrigger Christmas Carol Megaways free spins?
Yes. Three pocket watches during the feature add five spins: tickets 34, 40 and 42 went from 15 to 20 spins that way, while none of the 13 natural bonuses got an extension.
Comments and reviews
Leave a comment or your own test of this slot
- spins10,000
- bet2.00
- result-1,422x
- RTP measured85.8%
- bonuses13
- max win, no bonus120.0x
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