Today, you can find thousands of different online fruit machines from over 100 different software providers and development studios, and there are numerous varieties to suit all types of players.
They are also sometimes referred to as slot machines, fruitys, or online pokies, and they are the most popular pastimes to play at online gambling sites.
If you are new to online fruit machines and want to learn more about the different varieties you will most likely come across in 2024, you’ve come to the right place.
I’ve listed here some of the most common online fruity varieties you can expect to encounter on today’s most trusted iGaming sites.
What are the different online fruit machine varieties?
All of the world’s top online slot machines can be easily categorised in different ways, usually by how many paylines or win ways they have or by the type of mechanics and features they have.
Some of the most common online fruity varieties out there today that I have found are the following:
- Classic online one armed bandits – usually have 3 reels and 1 to 5 paylines
- Video one armed bandits – usually have 5 or 6 reels and multiple paylines/win ways
- Fixed coin jackpot one armed bandits – the jackpots in these games are capped at a certain amount (e.g., worth anywhere from 100x up to 50,000x times your stake)
- Progressive jackpots – the progressive jackpots can climb to no fixed amount. These pooled jackpots will keep on climbing until someone wins, at which point they reset to their original seed amount
- Megaways one armed bandits – these ones come with the Megaways game mechanic that was pioneered by Big Time Gaming
- Win ways one armed bandits – the wins in these pay in both directions (from left to right and from right to left), and they usually have 243, 720, or 1,024 ways to win per spin
- Payline one armed bandits – these ones can typically have 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, or 100 paylines stretching across the reels
- Branded online one armed bandits – usually based on famous brands, particularly television shows, blockbuster movies, comics, or sports stars
- Free spins one armed bandits – online one armed bandits that come with the free spins bonus round
- Live dealer one armed bandits – regular, computer-generated online one-armed bandits that are played in live dealer gambling sites in real-time, where human beings present the action
I have also found many fruit machine varieties that can be separated and categorized by the type of features they have, such as wild symbol feature fruity (expanding wilds, stacked wilds, multiplier wilds, shifting wilds, walking wilds, etc.), gamble features, second screen picking bonus rounds, and re-spins features, to name a few.
Some participants also like to separate Fruitys by which the company made them, whether they are new releases or much older titles, whether they are low, medium, or high volatility, their average RTP (Return to Player) percentage payout rates, and their theme/genre.
What are the most popular online fruit machine themes?
The Luck O’ the Irish and Leprechaun theme is one of the most popular fruit machine themes. Today, you can find hundreds of Leprechaun-themed fruits from the online gambling industry’s most notable providers.
Other popular fruity themes that players, including myself, can’t seem to get enough of are Norse Mythology, the Wild West, Ancient Egypt, Sports, Horror, Science Fiction, and Animals.
That’s not forgetting Greek Mythology-themed fruity, Fishing-themed fruits, and ones with a Norse Mythology theme.
Market-leading providers have also developed hundreds of Ancient Aztec/Maya-themed fruitys, War & Military-themed fruitys, Money/Wealth and Luxury Lifestyle-themed fruitys, Arthurian Legend/King Arthur/Merlin-themed fruitys, Atlantis-themed fruitys, and Las Vegas/Casino-themed fruitys, to name a few top themes.
Today, online fruit machines can be accessed instantly in your web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari), provided you have a stable Wi-Fi/internet connection. You can enjoy playing them from any modern iOS or Android smartphone or tablet device, Windows, macOS, or Linux desktop computer or laptop.
How to choose the ultimate online fruity varieties
When choosing which fruity to play with, the best thing to do would be to try out as many different varieties as possible to see which ones you like. You may like a wide range of fruity varieties or just a handful of specific varieties.
I prefer searching for online fruitys by provider. In other words, I will specifically look for online fruitys from Blueprint Gaming, Red Tiger Gaming, Games Global, Playtech, Pragmatic Play, and IGT Play Digital.
Other top providers you may be interested in, with hundreds of fruity varieties to choose from, are Skywind Group, ELK Studios, Relax Gaming, Iron Dog Studio, Light & Wonder, Yggdrasil Gaming, and Thunderkick.
Final note
The important thing to remember when playing online fruit machines is to only ever do so at a fully licensed and regulated gambling site that’s known to be owned and operated by a trustworthy company.
Gamble responsibly at all times by setting deposit limits, session time reminders and/or win/loss limits, and remember to take frequent session breaks.