Bonanza is the original Megaways slot — Big Time Gaming launched the title in 2016 and the Megaways engine itself was created specifically for it. Buffalo Rising Megaways is one of the earliest licensed adoptions of the engine, produced by Blueprint Gaming after BTG opened the Megaways framework to third-party developers. Mechanically the two titles share a core: variable reel heights producing 117,649 possible ways to win, cascading reactions on winning combinations, and a free-spins round with a multiplier that increases on consecutive cascades.
The headline gap
Bonanza publishes 96.00%. Buffalo Rising Megaways publishes 96.50%. A 0.50 percentage point gap in Buffalo Rising's favour at theoretical deployment. Over £10,000 of staked play that translates to £50 of preserved bankroll — a meaningful amount for any extended session. The gap is structural rather than incidental: Blueprint chose to launch their early Megaways titles at a competitive 96.50% to position the catalogue against BTG's originals, and Bonanza's 96.00% reflects an earlier era of Megaways calibration when the engine was new and providers built in slightly more margin for variance.
Different tier systems
The complication: Bonanza and Buffalo Rising run on different provider tier systems. Big Time Gaming uses a 2-3 tier deployment with relatively narrow spread between tiers — a Bonanza deployed at the second tier typically runs around 94-95%. Blueprint uses a 3-4 tier system with wider spread — Buffalo Rising at the second tier can run 94-95%, and at the third tier as low as 91-92%. This means at top-tier deployments at both providers, Buffalo Rising leads by 0.50pp. But at mid-tier deployments at a casino that runs Blueprint titles low, the gap can narrow or reverse.
The persistent trail mechanic
Buffalo Rising's distinctive feature is its persistent free-spins trail — a cross-session progress bar that builds toward bonus triggers across multiple play sessions. This is unusual for Megaways titles and creates a soft persistence layer that Bonanza lacks. Some players value this; others find it irrelevant since the per-spin maths are unchanged regardless of trail position. Bonanza's structure is more straightforward: cascade-driven base game, free-spins round triggered by scatter combinations, increasing multiplier with each consecutive cascade during the bonus.
Verdict
At equal or higher deployment tiers, Buffalo Rising Megaways is the better mathematical choice by 0.50pp. Bonanza retains its place in slot history as the original Megaways title, but historical significance does not affect expected return. For the highest-RTP Megaways title widely available in the UK, look beyond both: White Rabbit Megaways at 97.72% beats both by a substantial margin. For more on the engine and how providers deploy it, see our Megaways guide.