5 Lions Megaways 2: review, 96.5% RTP and up to 8000× max win

5 Lions Megaways 2 is Pragmatic Play’s 2025 sequel to the 2021 golden-lions game: six reels of up to eight symbols, up to 262,144 ways, and wild multipliers that now reach ×100. The provider’s own summary is precise about what changed — the multipliers “boost win potential from 5,000x to 8,000x”.

	5 Lions Megaways (2021)	5 Lions Megaways 2 (2025)
Ways	up to 200,704	up to 262,144
Ceiling	5000×	8000×
Default RTP	96.5%	96.5%

Is 5 Lions Megaways 2 worth playing?

Yes, if you like choosing how your bonus behaves. The feature that defines this game is the free-spins menu, and it is a real choice rather than decoration:

Option	Spins	Multipliers
Few and big	5	×20 to ×100
Many and small	25	×2 to ×8
Mystery	—	a combination picked for you

Pick five and you are betting the whole round on one or two big multipliers landing on a wild. Pick twenty-five and you get a long, steady round. The RTP is the same either way — you are choosing the shape of the risk, not a better deal.

Verdict: a well-designed Megaways sequel that gives the player an actual decision. The 8000× ceiling is modest for a grid this wide, but the choice makes the bonus more interesting than most.

How the bonus works

From Pragmatic Play’s description:

• Three scatters start the free spins, with the choice above.
• Three or more scatter and super scatter symbols start Super Free Spins instead, with between 1 and 10 extra spins added.
• Level Up coins: for every three collected, three spins are added and the lowest bonus multiplier is removed. In the “few and big” option, that is how a ×20 floor becomes a much higher one.

Outside the bonus, the reels change height every spin, and bigwinboard reports a hit frequency of 1 in 4.69.

RTP: three builds, and the “common” one is not the best

Where	What it says
Pragmatic Play, official page	96.50%
Bigwinboard	96.50% · 95.50% · 94.50%
Slotcatalog	95.5% listed as the usual default

⚠️ Two catalogues disagree about which build is “normal”, and that disagreement is itself the point: the operator picks, and the game looks the same in all three. Open the info panel and read the number.

Six lions, one price

Pragmatic has shipped six 5 Lions games since 2018. The pattern is the same one that runs through the studio’s whole catalogue, and it is clearer here than almost anywhere:

5 Lions game	Year	Default RTP	Max win
5 Lions	2018	96.5%	—
5 Lions Gold	2019	96.5%	7342×
5 Lions Dance	2020	96.5%	—
5 Lions Megaways	2021	96.5%	5000×
5 Lions Reborn	2025	96.5%	5000×
5 Lions Megaways 2	2025	96.5%	8000×

⚠️ Six games, seven years, one RTP. 96.5% on every single one. Whatever else changed between 2018 and 2025 — grids, mechanics, art, the Megaways licence — the price did not move once.

So the upgrade from Megaways to Megaways 2 is exactly what it looks like on the ceiling row and nothing more: the same expected return, redistributed to pay out 8000× instead of 5000× at the top. That money comes from somewhere, and where it comes from is the frequency of everything below it. A higher ceiling on an unchanged RTP is not a better deal; it is a different shape of the same deal.

Which of the six to actually play

On price, it makes no difference — and that is the useful finding. Pick on the grid and the ride: Gold’s 7342× is the odd one out numerically but it is a fixed-reel game, Megaways 2 gives the widest variable grid and the highest top line, Reborn is the 2025 fixed-reel take. None of them is cheaper than the others, so play whichever you enjoy and ignore anyone who tells you one has better maths.

Bankroll tips

• Decide the bonus option before the round, not in the moment. Five big spins at a high stake is the fastest way through a bankroll this game offers.
• Mind the bet range. Stakes run from €0.20 to €600; the Megaways swings scale with them.
• Use the demo on this page to try both free-spins options before you pay for either.