The Buffalo King name is shared by three slots released across four and a half years. They have the same frontier setting and the same cast of prairie animals, but they are not three skins of one machine. This article walks through them in order of release and states plainly where the supplier gives a figure and where it does not. Every fact is drawn from Pragmatic Play's game pages and its three announcements.
Buffalo King, January 2020
The original was announced on 9 January 2020. The press release calls it a 4×6 slot, while the game page describes it as 6×4. They are the same shape described from different directions: six reels and four rows, with 4096 ways to win. Buffalo symbols are stacked on the reels, which the studio highlights as the source of its win potential.
The bonus is the centre of the design. The release says that three golden bonus symbols landing together trigger free spins and move the action to the plains at night. The game page widens that to three to six bonus symbols awarding between 8 and 100 free spins, with a further two to six symbols retriggering the round for 5 to 100 extra spins. During the feature, wilds carry a multiplier of 2x, 3x or 5x, and if more than one wild lands in a winning combination the multipliers stack. The printed return is 96.06%.
Buffalo King Megaways, April 2021
On 29 April 2021 the studio brought the title back with a Megaways makeover. The grid grows to eight columns by six rows, with 200,704 different ways to win, and the game uses a cascading mechanic: after a win, the winning symbols are removed and new ones fall in. The release describes the game as highly volatile, which is the supplier's own wording and the only volatility statement in the material we have.
The free spins bonus is called the Free Game. The press release says four or more scatters trigger it, and that four, five or six scatters award a prize of 5x, 20x or 100x the total bet. The game page describes the awarded free spins as 12 to 22. Landing three or more scatters during the feature adds five more spins. Wilds appear with multipliers of up to 5x, and the release says those values accumulate within a single tumble sequence; the game page states that in the feature all wilds come with a 2x, 3x or 5x multiplier.
This is also the game with a purchase option in the supplier's description. The release says players can buy the Free Game before each spin at a cost of 100 times their bet. Whether that choice is visible to you depends on the operator and your market. The printed return for this version is 96.52%.
Buffalo King Untamed Megaways, June 2024
The third entry was released on 20 June 2024. It moves to a 6×7 layout with up to 86,436 ways to win, which is fewer ways than the 2021 game despite carrying the Megaways name. The supplier's wording makes this clear: the maximum depends on the grid, and the grid here is smaller than before.
The wild changes the most. It appears only on reels two to five, and the press release says it can carry a random multiplier of 2x, 3x or 5x. The game page gives the range as 1x to 5x, so the two official sources differ slightly on the low end, and we repeat both instead of picking. When more than one multiplier lands in the same winning combination, they are multiplied among themselves, not added.
New in this entry are random modifiers. The announcement says that at any point in the game they can grant a minimum of 10,000 ways or 86,436 ways, and that 100 top-paying buffalo symbols can be added to the reels. For the bonus, four, five or six scatters trigger 10, 15 or 20 free spins. Each time a wild is part of a winning combination during the feature, the multipliers of wilds still to come rise by 1x for the rest of the round, and landing three or more scatters awards another batch of free spins, which the game page puts at 5 to 20. The supplier's chief operating officer is quoted in the release as mentioning max wins of up to 10,000x. The printed return is 96.02%.
The differences at a glance
- Layout. Six reels by four rows in 2020, eight by six in 2021, six by seven in 2024.
- Ways to win. 4096, then 200,704, then up to 86,436.
- Free spin ranges. 8 to 100 for the original, 12 to 22 for the Megaways game, 10 to 20 for Untamed, each with its own retrigger rules.
- Wild multipliers. 2x, 3x or 5x that stack in the original, up to 5x accumulating on tumbles in the Megaways game, and random multipliers that multiply each other and grow during the bonus in Untamed.
- Special extras. A Free Game purchase at 100 times the bet in 2021, and random modifiers in 2024.
- Printed return. 96.06%, 96.52% and 96.02% in release order.
Reading the progression
Laid side by side, the releases show a studio revisiting one theme with different tools. The first game leans on a long free spins ladder and stacked symbols. The second adds a variable grid, cascades and a way to pay for the bonus directly. The third drops the grid size, narrows where wilds can land and layers on mid-round modifiers. None of this is a ranking, and the studio does not describe any entry as a replacement for the others. Each remains its own game with its own rules page, which is why we suggest reading the in-game help screen for whichever one you open.
What the material does not say
The supplier publishes no hit frequency for any of the three, no stake range on the pages we read, and no numerical volatility index. Only the Megaways game is described in words as highly volatile. We will not fill the gaps with guesses, and you should be sceptical of any page that does.
Which one should you try?
Nobody can say which is best for you. The original suits someone who wants a simpler structure with a long free spins ladder. The Megaways game suits someone who enjoys cascades and the idea of building multipliers. The Untamed edition suits someone curious about random changes mid-round. The honest approach is to open all three demos, play each for a while and see which pace you enjoy. Whatever you pick, stake only what you can lose without harm. The house edge exists in all three games, and no grid size, feature or version removes it.
Gambling is for adults only (18+, or the legal age where you live). If you feel it is getting out of hand, free and confidential help is linked in our footer. Try the free demos on each version page first.
Related versions
- Buffalo King: 96.06% RTP
- Buffalo King Megaways: 96.52% RTP
- Buffalo King Untamed Megaways: 96.02% RTP, 10,000× max win