Low variance pokies are those pokies where you bet less and win more frequently. These pokies are games that provide frequent, smaller payouts compared to medium or high-variance pokies. Low variance pokies fall more on the instant gratification side of the spectrum for players who at least get some payouts spinning the reels rather than spending time with high stakes pokies and waiting to win something big.
This means low variance pokies are defined by frequent smaller rewards over time, high variance pokies will test your patience between bigger wins.
There are specific circumstances in which low variance pokies are the better option. If you are clearing a bonus or are working with a limited bankroll, low variance is better. Lower variance equals lower volatility, which means your swings in either direction are not as severe.
Lower swings result in a lower risk of losses. Even if low and high variance pokies have an identical return-to-player, the high variance pokies are more likely to bankrupt an undersized bankroll due to those bigger swings. Besides, it’s not like low variance pokies never provide large payouts. They more certainly do offer large prizes. It’s just that the biggest jackpots are even harder to come by in low variance pokies because you are rewarded more frequently with smaller payouts.
The best Low Variance Pokies to Play Online
1. Sunny Shores
- Provider: Yggdrasil
- Release Date: May, 2017
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 96.2%
- Minimum Bet: 0.10
- Maximum Bet: 125
- Max Win: $40,500
- Paylines: 27
- Reels: 5
- Features: Win Multipliers, Expanding Wilds, Wild Re-Spins, Sticky Wild Re-Spins
Sunny Shores is a fun and lighthearted game from Yggdrasil that combines simple but crisp graphics with fast gameplay to offer players an engaging but low-stress experience. The low volatile nature of this game meshes well with the tropical theme on display. The main symbol you’re looking for whenever you spin the reels is the Sunny Wild symbol. It can expand up to two positions in every direction and trigger sticky wild re-spins. if any of your Sunny Wilds expand outside the reels, they wrap around to the other side so you don’t miss a thing.
2. Well of Wonders
- Provider: Thunderkick
- Release Date: March, 2017
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 96.1%
- Minimum Bet: 0.10
- Maximum Bet: 100
- Max Win: 2280x
- Paylines: 7
- Reels: 7
- Features: Multiplier Re-Spins, Wilds, Fairy Wilds
Well of Wonders is a sleek game from Thunderkick with a hit frequency (any win) of 37.7%. This means you can expect to win something more than a third of the time. Well of Wonders plays a bit differently than your typical pokies. Rather than traditional spinning reels, the game shoots new symbols out of the well in the middle of the screen. Matching symbols trigger payouts and are removed from the symbols area. Whenever symbols are removed, new symbols are ejected from the well in a re-spin feature. Payouts double for each re-spin feature up to a maximum multiplier of 32x.
3. Blood Suckers
- Provider: NetEnt
- Release Date: 2009
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 98%
- Minimum Bet: 0.25
- Maximum Bet: 20
- Max Win: $50,730
- Paylines: 25
- Reels: 5
- Features: Re-Spins, Free Spins, Bonus Game
Blood Suckers is a classic NetEnt title to play with the game’s high return-to-player a whopping 98% and low volatility. The play of the game is fairly straightforward. As you spin the reels and line up vampire-themed symbols, payouts are awarded across the 25 paylines. Five wild symbols will trigger the max payout of 7500 coins while 3 or more bonus symbols will send you to a bonus game in which you open coffins and stab vampires with a wooden stake.
In the vampire-slaying bonus game, you select coffins to open. Each time you open a coffin and a vampire is revealed, you earn a bonus payout. You get to continue opening coffins and earning bonuses until you reveal an empty coffin to end the bonus round.
Scatter symbols serve as both multipliers and free spin symbols. Two scatters give you a 2x multiplier while three scatters give you a 4x multiplier plus 10 free spins. Four scatters give you a 25x multiplier plus 10 free spins and five scatters give you a 100x multiplier plus 10 free spins.
4. Thunderstruck II
- Provider: Microgaming
- Release Date: May, 2010
- Volatility: Low-Medium
- RTP: 96.65%
- Minimum Bet: 0.3
- Maximum Bet:15
- Max Win: 6,000 coins
- Paylines: 243
- Reels: 5
- Features: Free Spins, Bonus Game, Win Multiplier
Thunderstruck 2 is definitely less volatile than the original based on both player accounts and a look at the paytable. Getting three or more bonus hammers activates the Great Hall of Spins bonus game. What is typically a low-variance pokies game suddenly becomes high-paying pokies as you choose between one of four bonus features: 10 free spins + all wins multiple 5x, 15 free spins + wild magic feature, 20 free spins + wild raven feature, or 25 free spins + rolling reels feature.
5. 1429 Uncharted Seas
- Provider: Thunderkick
- Release Date: 2014
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 98.5%
- Minimum Bet: 0.10
- Maximum Bet: 100
- Max Win: 670x bet
- Paylines: 25
- Reels: 5
- Features: Bonus Game, Expanding Wilds, Free Spins
1429 Uncharted Seas is a highly underrated low variance game that offers the best of two worlds for anyone clearing a bonus or simply looking to extend a limited bankroll: low variance and a high payout percentage 98.5% RTP. Uncharted Seas is a fairly straightforward game without a ton of crazy features. You spin the reels, earn prizes, and sometimes benefit from an expanding reel. The bonus game is activated by landing 3 or more bonus symbols. Three bonus symbols result in 10 free spins, four bonus symbols result in 20 free spins and five bonus symbols result in 50 free spins.
6. Simsalabim
- Provider: NetEnt
- Release Date: December, 2011
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 97.5%
- Minimum Bet: 0.01
- Maximum Bet: 125
- Max Win: 225,000 coins
- Paylines: 25
- Reels: 5
- Features: Bonus Game, Free Spins, Win Multiplier
Simsalabim is a magic-themed pokie that works well for bonus clearing due to a high return-to-player and low volatility. This game can also produce some sizable jackpots so you don’t have to completely give up on big wins even as you experience the lower volatility this game provides.
There are two major features that you’re looking for in this game for large wins. If you land three or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, you’ll enter free spin mode and receive a 3x multiplier on all winnings achieved with free spins. Three scatter symbols pay 4 coins + 10 free spins, four scatter symbols pay 25 coins + 20 free spins and four scatter symbols pay 200 coins + 30 free spins.
The other feature with the potential for big payouts is the bonus game. Three or more bonus symbols on a single payline will send you to a bonus game in which you touch a magic wand to magician hats in order to conjure up payouts from thin air.
7. Esqueleto Explosivo
- Provider: Thunderkick
- Release Date: April, 2014
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 96%
- Minimum Bet: 0.10
- Maximum Bet: 100
- Max Win: 700x bet
- Paylines: 17
- Reels: 15
- Features: Chain Reactions, Re-Spins, Win Multipliers
Esqueleto Explosivo is a fun Thunderkick pokies with a maximum payout of €70,000. Every time you spin the reels you get a winning combination, as skulls explode and are replaced automatically with even more skulls.
A single spin of the reels can set off a chain reaction of exploding skulls, more skulls falling from above and setting off more explosions, and so on. That’s how the re-spin feature works. Every time you trigger such a chain reaction, the win multiplier advances from 1x to 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, and 32x.
8. Incinerator
- Provider: Yggdrasil
- Release Date: January, 2016
- Volatility: Low-Medium
- RTP: 96.1%
- Minimum Bet: 0.20
- Maximum Bet: 200
- Max Win: $60,000
- Paylines: 20
- Reels: 5
- Features: Wilds, Chain Reactions
A futuristic theme, chain reactions, and lots of wild symbols are the defining features of Yggdrasil’s Incinerator. Just like Esqueleto Explosivo, Incinerator’s symbols fall from the top and explode every time a winning combination is landed. The exploded symbols are removed from the reels and new symbols fall down in their place. If the replacements land in winning combinations, those symbols are also removed and the process continues as you rack up the wins.
The feature that triggers the biggest wins in Incinerator is activated whenever you cause a cascade involving three or more winning combinations in a row. When that happens, the bonus pattern displayed on the left side of the screen becomes activated on your reels and every symbol there is replaced with a wild.
9. Bar Bar Black Sheep
- Provider: Microgaming
- Release Date: April, 2016
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 95.32%
- Minimum Bet: 0.15
- Maximum Bet: 150
- Max Win: $60,000
- Paylines: 15
- Reels: 5
- Features: Free Spins, Win Multiplier, Re-Spins
This 5-reel version of Bar Bar Black Sheep was released in 2016 as a remake of an older, 3-reel version produced by Microgaming. Bar Bar Black Sheep looks and plays like low variance pokies. In playing, you receive frequent wins and can trigger bonus features on a somewhat regular basis. A quick look at the paytable will also confirm that there are a lot of small payouts and only two really big ways to hit it big.
The two features to look for as you play are the wilds and free spins scatter symbols. A wilds multiplier is activated when you get two BAR symbols followed by the black sheep. This delivers an instant random multiplier of up to 999x your line bet.
10. Holmes and the Stolen Stones
- Provider: Yggdrasil
- Release Date: September, 2015
- Volatility: Low
- RTP: 96.8%
- Minimum Bet: 0.20
- Maximum Bet: 40
- Max Win: Progressive jackpot
- Paylines: 20
- Reels: 5
- Features: Local Progressive Jackpot, Bonus Game, Win Multipliers
Holmes and the Stolen Stones takes you through a mystery adventure as you search an old warehouse for missing shards that unlock five different local progressive jackpots. Collect five shards of the same color to trigger 10 free spins with a 3x multiplier and earn a diamond for your collection. Once you collect five diamonds of the same color, you win the corresponding jackpot.
What makes this pokie especially attractive is there are even more jackpots to be won without the shards. Three or more bonus symbols will trigger a bonus game in which you crack open boxes to reveal prizes and shards. If you trigger the bonus game with four bonus symbols, you get a 100-coin jackpot while five bonus symbols will get you a 10,000-coin jackpot.
