Fruit Slots and Fruit Machines: How They Work and Which Games to Try
By John Isaac,Editor at online-gambling.com
John Isaac
Editor at online-gambling.com A fruit machine is the British and European name for a classic slot: three or five reels, few paylines, and cherries, lemons, plums, melons, bells and sevens. Online casinos file them under fruit slots; in the US the same game is a slot machine, in Australia a pokie.
Fruit machine slots online keep those symbols and the quick pace, then add adjustable bets, published RTP figures and features such as expanding wilds or free spins. A few copy the UK pub machine with nudges, holds and a gamble ladder.
What a Fruit Machine Is
Fruit symbols arrived on the reels more than a decade after the first slot machine.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Mid-1890s | Charles Fey builds the Liberty Bell in San Francisco. Three reels and five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a cracked bell. No fruit on it at all. |
| 1907 to 1910 | The Mills Novelty Company puts the three-reel machine into mass production, and the fruit symbols arrive on gum-vending Bell machines: cherries, lemons, oranges and plums. The cabinet vends fruit-flavored gum rather than cash, and the symbol shows the flavor won. |
| 1976 | Fortune Coin develops the first video slot in Kearny Mesa, California, and the first units go on trial at the Las Vegas Hilton. A screen replaces the mechanical reels, and the fruit machine and the video slot become two separate formats. |
The BAR symbol started as a picture of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum, which is why a gum-company image still sits next to the cherries on slots built a century later.
In Britain the machines took their own path. The pub and arcade cabinet became the AWP, short for amusement with prizes.
The Gambling Commission regulates it as a Category C machine, with a maximum stake of £1, a maximum prize of £100, and an 18 and over age limit.
Online slots in Britain have their own caps: £5 a spin, or £2 for players aged 18 to 24, with no autoplay allowed. Every Gambling Commission licensee must apply them, including the best online casinos in the UK.
AWPs added nudges, holds and an upper feature board. Most UK players picture that cabinet when they say “fruit machine”.
The Netherlands has its own tradition of café and arcade fruit machines, and licensed slots in the Netherlands come with a deposit limit on every account.
So the word covers two related things. In the broader sense, a fruit machine is any classic slot with fruit symbols and a small number of paylines. In the UK sense, it is a cabinet with player-controlled nudges and holds.
Online you can find both, and this page covers both. Progressive jackpots, Megaways and every other format belong to the wider world of online slots.
Bells, BARs and lucky sevens sit alongside the fruit, with the sevens usually the top regular symbol. The six symbols and features below are the rest of the game.
- Fruit – Cherries pay the least and often pay for two on a line. Lemons, oranges and plums sit in the middle, grapes and melons pay more.
- Scatter – A star, a joker or a fruit basket that pays wherever it lands instead of on a payline. Sizzling Hot deluxe and Burning Hot both use a scatter symbol.
- Wild – Substitutes for the regular symbols to complete a line. On 20 Super Hot the job is done by stacked sevens.
- Multiplier – Raises what a win pays. Fire Joker spins a wheel worth up to 10x, Fruit Party stacks symbol multipliers up to 256x.
- Free spins – Fruit Shop pays them for any fruit win at a 2x multiplier, Extra Juicy gives 12 with a multiplier that grows every spin.
Best Online Fruit Machine Slots: 12 Fruit Slot Games Compared
The table lists 12 fruit slot games, running from the plainest 3-reel games to modern fruit slots that keep the symbols but drop the paylines entirely.
| Game | Provider | Reels and paylines | RTP | Key feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mega Joker | NetEnt | 3×3, 5 lines | Up to 99.00% | Supermeter mode and a progressive jackpot |
| Fire Joker | Play’n GO | 3×3, 5 lines | 96.15% | Respin of Fire and a Wheel of Multipliers up to 10x |
| Sizzling Hot deluxe | Novomatic (Greentube) | 5×3, 5 lines | 95.66% | Star scatter pays anywhere, red-or-black gamble |
| Burning Hot | Amusnet | 5×3, 5 lines | 96.45% | Expanding wild, two scatters, jackpot cards |
| 20 Super Hot | Amusnet | 5×3, 20 lines | 95.79% | Stacked sevens as wilds, jackpot cards, gamble |
| Fruit Shop | NetEnt | 5×3, 15 lines | 96.71% | Any fruit win awards free spins with a 2x multiplier |
| Extra Juicy | Pragmatic Play | 5×3, 10 lines | 96.52% | 12 free spins with a multiplier that grows every spin |
| Fruit Zen | Betsoft | 5×3, 10 lines | 95.96% | Expanding wild on reels 2 to 4 triggers a re-spin |
| Jokerizer | Yggdrasil | 5×3, 10 lines | 88.80% to 98.00% | Jokerizer Mode lifts the RTP after any line win |
| Fruit Shop Megaways | NetEnt | 6 reels, up to 117,649 ways | 96.06% | Megaways reels, free spins with a rising multiplier |
| Fruit Party | Pragmatic Play | 7×7 grid, cluster pays | 96.50% | Random symbol multipliers stack up to 256x |
| Fruit Warp | Thunderkick | 9 symbols, no paylines | 97.00% | Three or more matching fruits pay anywhere, Fruit Mode bonus |
Two RTP figures need a footnote. Mega Joker only reaches 99% when you play at the higher coin level and use the Supermeter; at the minimum bet the return is far lower.
Jokerizer runs its base game at 88.8% and only reaches 98% once Jokerizer Mode is active after a line win, so the headline figure is not the figure most spins are played at.
The rest sit between 95.66% and 97%, which is a normal spread for classic games. If the percentages are new to you, our guide to slot RTP explains what the figure measures and why casinos can offer the same game at a lower setting.
Sizzling Hot deluxe, for example, is listed by third-party slot databases in 92.28% and 90.02% versions, so the figure on the casino’s info screen matters more than the one in a review. Each of the software providers behind these games decides which RTP versions it makes available.
Our pick for a first fruit slot is Fire Joker: three reels, five lines and a 96.15% RTP, with a respin feature that is easy to follow.
How We Checked the Figures
For each title we opened the provider’s game page first: NetEnt, Amusnet, Pragmatic Play, Thunderkick, Betsoft and Yggdrasil all publish RTP, reel layout and paylines. Where the studio page lists no specs, as with Play’n GO and Greentube, we matched two independent reviews before keeping the game.
Several titles often sold as fruit slots did not make the cut. Go Bananas is a jungle slot, not a fruit machine. Scary Fruits, Cash Fruits Plus, Wild Cherries and Fresh Fruits have no provider game page we could check, so we dropped them.
How to Play Fruit Machines Online
Fruit machine slots online have fewer settings than video slots, so there is less to get wrong. The four things that matter are the bet per line, the number of active paylines, whether the game has a gamble feature, and whether it has nudges and holds.
Set the Bet and Paylines
Your stake per spin is the coin value multiplied by the coins per line multiplied by the active paylines. On a 5-line game at 0.20 per line you pay 1.00 per spin.
A 20-line game at 0.05 per line costs the same 1.00 per spin, but spreads it over four times as many lines. Each line win is worth a quarter as much, and you hit one about four times as often, so the session feels smoother without the long-run return changing.
Many classic fruit slots have fixed lines, so you only choose the total bet.
TIP: Where lines are selectable, playing fewer of them does not change the RTP. It only means a matching combination on an inactive line pays nothing.
Our paylines guide shows how the line patterns are drawn across the reels, including the diagonal and zigzag lines that catch new players out.
On 3-reel games the paytable is often printed above the reels, and three matching symbols on the middle line is the whole game. That layout defines 3-reel slots. The same retro look runs through the wider family of classic slots.
Nudges, Holds and Feature Boards
Nudges and holds are the UK contribution. A nudge lets you move one reel down a single position after a spin, so a symbol sitting just above the payline can be pulled into place.
A hold freezes one or more reels while the rest spin again. The machine awards both, and the number of nudges you get is usually shown on a counter above the reels.
The feature board is the upper section of a UK pub machine. Wins or symbols on the main reels move you along a trail, and squares on the trail trigger cash ladders, mystery prizes or a “skill stop” reel.
A few UK-facing studios recreate it on screen. Most of the games in our table do not have one, because they follow the international classic-slot format.
In a land-based AWP the machine controls when a nudge or hold appears, and online it is decided by the random number generator. Neither gives you an edge over the house.
What does move your results is bet size, game choice and how long you play, which is where any advice on how to win at slots should start.
The Gamble Feature
After a win, a gamble button often appears. The standard version is red or black: guess the color of a hidden card and the win doubles, guess wrong and it is gone. Some games offer a ladder instead, where each step raises the prize and a wrong step drops it.
TIP: A fair red-or-black gamble is a 50/50 bet with no house edge, so it changes the swings in your results while the expected return stays the same.
Our habit is to collect the win and skip the gamble.
Fruit Machines vs Video Slots
Both run on a random number generator and both publish an RTP, so they are equally fair. They differ in pace, complexity and volatility, and the table sets the two formats side by side.
| Fruit machines | Video slots | |
|---|---|---|
| Symbols | Cherries, lemons, plums, melons, bells, BARs and sevens | Themed characters, storylines, licensed brands |
| Reels and paylines | Mostly 3 or 5 reels with 1 to 20 paylines, modern grid variants excepted | 5 or 6 reels, 20 to 100 paylines or Megaways and cluster grids |
| Features | Gamble ladder, scatter star, occasional nudges and holds | Free spins, pick-me bonuses, expanding reels, buy-bonus options |
| Volatility | Usually low to medium, frequent small wins | Full range from low to very high |
| RTP range in our table | 95.66% to 99.00% (Jokerizer base game excepted) | Mostly 94% to 96.5%, the range our slot RTP guide gives |
| Spin speed | Fast, few animations | Slower, longer bonus sequences |
The RTP tells you the average cost. At 1.00 per spin on a 96% game, the expected loss is 0.04 per spin, or about 8.00 over a 200-spin session, whichever type you play. Volatility decides how far a real session strays from that average.
On a low-volatility fruit slot, 200 spins usually land close to the expected figure, with many small wins along the way. On a high-volatility video slot the same 200 spins can burn the whole budget or return several times it, because most of the RTP sits in rare bonus rounds.
If you want longer bonus rounds and bigger multipliers, a video slot is the better fit, and most of them are 5-reel slots. Before you pick, check what low and high slot volatility mean for your bankroll.
Why Fruit Machines Stay Popular
Three things keep fruit slot games in casino lobbies.
- Familiarity – anyone who has walked past a pub machine or a Vegas floor knows the cherries, the bells and the BAR. A fruit slot needs no tutorial, and the paytable fits on one screen.
- Speed – a spin on Sizzling Hot deluxe or Burning Hot resolves in seconds, with no cascades, no animated bonus intro and no buy-bonus menu. British rules set a 2.5-second minimum per spin online.
- Math – most classic fruit slots are low to medium volatility, so a fixed budget lasts longer. Mega Joker and Jokerizer are the high-volatility exceptions.
A few, such as Mega Joker or the Amusnet titles with jackpot cards, add a progressive or mystery jackpot on top of the base game. None of that changes the house edge, but it does change how a session feels.
FAQ
Short answers to the questions people ask most about fruit machines and fruit slots online.
1. What is a fruit machine?
A fruit machine is the British and European term for a classic slot machine with fruit symbols such as cherries, lemons, plums and melons on the reels. In the UK it also refers specifically to pub and arcade AWP cabinets with nudges, holds and a feature board. Online, the term covers any simple 3-reel or 5-reel fruit slot.
2. Are fruit machines and slot machines the same thing?
Mostly, yes. A fruit machine is a slot machine with fruit symbols, and both use a random number generator to decide every spin. The difference is regional vocabulary and, in the UK, the added nudge, hold and feature-board mechanics. Video slots with themed characters and long bonus rounds are slots too, but nobody calls them fruit machines.
3. Can I play fruit machines online for free?
Yes. Most fruit slots have a demo mode that runs on play money with the same RTP, reels and features as the real-money version. Demo play is useful for reading the paytable and seeing how often a game pays before you stake anything. In some regulated markets you must register an account before the demo is available.
4. How do you win on fruit machines?
You win when matching symbols land on an active payline, or anywhere on the screen in games such as Fruit Warp. Every spin is random, so no method raises your chances beyond the published RTP. What you can control is the bet size, the number of lines, whether you take the gamble, and how long you play.
5. What do nudges and holds do on a fruit machine?
A nudge moves one reel down a single position after a spin, so a symbol sitting just above the payline can be brought onto it. A hold freezes one or more reels while the others spin again. The machine decides when to offer them, so they add decisions to the game but not an edge over the house.
6. Which fruit machine slot has the highest RTP?
Of the titles we verified, NetEnt’s Mega Joker lists up to 99% RTP, but only at the higher coin level using the Supermeter. Thunderkick’s Fruit Warp runs at 97% on every spin, and Yggdrasil’s Jokerizer reaches 98% in Jokerizer Mode but only 88.8% in the base game. Casinos can also offer lower RTP versions of some games.
7. Why do slot machines use fruit symbols?
Early 20th-century US laws banned cash payouts from slot machines, so manufacturers paid in fruit-flavored chewing gum and put cherries, lemons, oranges and plums on the reels to show which flavor you had won. The BAR symbol started as a picture of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum. The symbols outlived the gum and became the standard look of a classic slot.
Final Thoughts
Fruit machines are the simplest slots you can play, and our pick of the best online fruit machine slots covers the whole range from a 3-reel, 5-line game to a paylines-free grid.
Pick by RTP and volatility, read the paytable once, and treat the gamble button as optional.
Slots are negative-expectation games. No nudge, hold or gamble changes the RTP, so set a budget before you spin and stop when it is gone.
If you are looking for fruit slots in a specific market, start with where you live. The slots for players in the US depend on the state, because online casinos are licensed state by state.
The fruit titles on offer are different again for slots in the Philippines.