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Everything You Need to Know About Hit Frequency of a Slot

February 18, 2022

Written By,

Brijesh Mehta

Hit frequency is basically the number of times you’ll win the jackpot or total payout. In this article, you will get to know what hit frequency means, how it’s measured, and how the RTP level might vary in one and the same slot game.

Everything You Need to Know About Hit Frequency of a Slot

Online slots are one of the most popular casino games. They are accessible to everyone, designed by the leading providers, and displayed by an increasing number of online casinos. It is only normal that people quickly get addicted to them, thanks to their simple interface, beautiful graphics, and rising jackpots.

To have a good time while playing at slots you should be aware of your hit frequency (the number of times you win on each spin) and the RTP (Return to Player) level. These two parameters together constitute the core metrics for analyzing slot games, explaining why certain games are preferred over others, and determining how much profit we can make in the long run if we put in bets with a certain return. But with a proper online slots guide, you can have knowledge on what is slots and how it is played?

What Exactly is Hit Frequency?

Hit frequency is a term you hear is thrown around quite a bit in the world of gambling. This is the probability of a slot machine paying out.

However, slot machines are not required to display their hit frequency so it can be confusing when you hear the term. If you have ever wondered what hit frequency is and what the chances are for winning on slots, here is everything you need to know about the hit frequency of a slot machine.

The hit frequency (HF) metric in online casino slots refers to the number of winning combinations that occur within a single spin. It is essentially a measurement of how often a player will land a winning combination. The higher the hit frequency, the more often a player will win, and the less variance they will experience. The lower the hit frequency, the more variance they will experience.

Return to Player is Just What it Sounds Like, Right?

Return to Player, or RTP as it is commonly referred to, is a percentage that indicates how much of the total money wagered will be paid out to gamblers. This figure is calculated by dividing the amount of money won by the total amount wagered. It’s a long-term figure that reflects on how often a machine will pay out over time.

Some slots have an RTP of up to 97%, whereas others have an RTP of around 92%. This means that if you play for one hour on a slot machine with an RTP of 92%, then you should bet $92 in order to win $100.

The return to player is the casino’s long-term expectation for how much a slot machine will pay back over time. It’s usually expressed as a percentage.

The short-term RTP is the actual amount returned by the machine in a single game session. This can vary greatly between machines, in which case it’s best to stick with the machine with the highest short-term RTP. While the long-term RTP is more important, the short-term RTP will tell you if you are dealing with a loose or tight machine.

If you want to maximize your winnings, then look for machines that payout more than 100%. The odds of winning on any of these machines is still slim, but they are better than playing on slots offering 90% or fewer payout rates (which are usually found in land-based casinos).

In some cases, however, you may be required to come up with a cash wager equal to 5 or 10 times the original bet before you can actually receive your winnings. This is called an ante bet and it makes sure that players don’t sit around waiting for their winnings forever.

What is The Best Way to Pick the Right Slot Game?

Picking the right Indian slot machine is a very important part of modern gambling. With so many different machines to choose from, you need to know which ones are going to give you the best odds. In general, you want to go for machines with higher payouts and lower volatility.

You need to take the time to pick a machine that will give you the best chance of winning. While you can’t control how much money you win, you can control which slot machine you choose to play.

In any casino, it is easy to find slot machines that have a payout percentage of less than 90%. Some of the lower-end casino slot machines are so bad that they have a payout percentage as low as 80% or even 70%. If you find yourself playing at a casino with a lot of these kinds of slots, then it is time for you to move on to another casino.

The ideal place for you to play at would be one where there are plenty of high-paying slot machines available for use. It is also important that these slot machines are being played by people that are winning. As such, you should make sure that these people are actually winning money and not just playing for fun. This way if you do decide to join in on the fun, you will know for sure what your chances really are.

Always make sure that you look at the payout percentage before making your final decision on a slot machine to play at. Also, if possible, check out the local rules on how much information they will provide as far as to pay.

Hit Frequency Types

Hit frequency is best measured in a number of times per thousand plays. The reason for this is that each individual play will never be exactly the same as the previous one and therefore the results will vary slightly.

This means that if you measure hit frequency based on exact numbers then you can never say with 100% certainty what the actual hit frequency is! The types of hit frequency are:

  • Hit Frequency of getting any winning per line
  • Hit Frequency of triggering Free Spins round
  • Hit Frequency of activating Bonus Game
  • Hit Frequency of progressive jackpot

What is The Average Hit Frequency on the Market?

The hit frequency is calculated based on the number of times that a specific symbol lands on the payline compared to the total number of spins. The higher the hit frequency of a symbol, the more frequently it appears on the payline. There are various methods for calculating this probability and one of them, which is used by all large online casinos, is known as RTP (Return to Player).

  • High volatile slots tend to have Hit Frequency somewhere around 20%
  • Medium volatile slots have Hit Frequency around 30%
  • Low volatile slots have Hit Frequency closer to 40%

The Complexities of Hit Frequency

Hit frequency is tricky because it is based on single spins only. A machine can have perfect hit frequency based on single spins, and still can have the worst payback percentage due to the fact that all of its wins are small. The opposite is also true: a machine can have very poor hit frequency based on single spins and still have the best payback percentage due to the fact that most of its wins are huge.

Additionally, hit frequency doesn’t take into consideration how many times you played on a certain machine. If you play for 30 minutes and get your 10 EUR win, then play for another 30 minutes and get your 2 EUR win – does that mean that you had good hit frequency? You bet it does!

In addition, the amount that a player wins on each winning spin doesn’t factor in either. For example, if a slot machine has a hit frequency of 98% but only pays out 0.1% each time it wins, that means that over the long term, the house has about an 86% advantage on every spin made by a player.

The bottom line is that hit frequency isn’t necessarily an accurate indicator of how much you can expect to spend on a game or how much you’ll win overall while playing it. As long as payouts are low relative to bets placed and hit frequencies are high (90% plus), you’ll be losing money over the long run while playing these games.

How to Find Out the Hit Frequency of a Particular Slot?

There is no firm rule of thumb when it comes to estimating hit frequency, as every slot is different. Some slots are designed to have a high hit frequency (with low volatility), while others will have a low hit frequency (with high volatility).

However, there are a few factors that you can keep in mind that will give you a general idea of what to expect from a slot. The first one is the volatility percentage. The higher the volatility percentage, the lower the hit frequency will be.

A slot with 50% volatility will often have a lower hit frequency than one with 75% volatility; if for example, it has a slightly increased volatility percentage then its hit frequency might be even lower again. Another factor to take into consideration is spinning speed. Slots with faster spins tend to have a higher hit frequency than those that spin slowly.

Conclusion

In the end, however, there are many games to choose from. In part, it depends on the amount you decide to bet, for example, Jackpot Slots have a much lower return rate than regular games. But in spite of this, we can always find a game that promises higher returns on our investments.  

We hope that this guide gave you some information about the hit frequency on slots is, how it’s measured and what factors impact the overall RTP level of a certain slot game. Hit frequency and RTP are two essential metrics used to compare slot games, so if you are planning to spend your time and money at a particular online casino you should factor them into your final verdict. Enjoy your winnings!

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If you are an online casino player, you might be familiar with betgames dice duel. To learn more about how to play dice dual, check out our article.

Written By,

Brijesh Mehta

Brijesh Mehta is a content writer & strategist from India providing his top-notch skills & expertise in the Sports and online casino industry for more than seven years. He is an avid reader and creative writer who is fond of words and uses them to teach others about online betting and trending sports news through his in-depth guides.