Pragmatic Play Buffalo Slots: The Buffalo King Series, 2019 to Untamed

Six reels instead of five

Pragmatic Play’s answer to the Aristocrat original changed the grid first. The 2019 Buffalo King runs six reels of four rows, 4,096 ways, with a rock-wall wild on reels two to six and a golden buffalo coin as the bonus symbol. The free spins scale steeply: three, four, five or six bonus symbols award 8, 15, 25 or 100 spins, and two to six more during the round add between 5 and 100. In those spins the wilds carry x2, x3 or x5, and several wilds in one win multiply together, up to x3,125 according to Bigwinboard.

That multiplication sits behind the game’s theoretical 93,750x ceiling, a figure quoted by reviewers that the provider page does not print. The provider page does give the RTP, 96.06%, and reviewers list 95.53% and 94.55% versions as well. There is no feature buy. In the US, no regulated casino page lists it.

The Megaways sequel

Two years later Pragmatic Play moved the series onto Megaways, licensed from Big Time Gaming. Buffalo King Megaways has six reels of two to seven symbols, a four-symbol top reel over reels two to five, and up to 200,704 ways. Winning symbols tumble away. Four, five or six scatters open 12, 17 or 22 free spins and pay 5x, 20x or 100x the bet on the trigger, and three more scatters during the round add five spins without a cap on retriggers.

The wild multipliers work differently here. They still come as x2, x3 or x5, but the values add up across a tumble sequence and reset for each free spin, a gentler design than the original’s multiplying wilds. The max win is lower, 5,000x, and the standard RTP higher at 96.52%, with a 94.51% version at reviewers and a reported 94.10% build at Hard Rock Bet in New Jersey and Michigan.

This is the series’ US title. It is confirmed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and it heads the best buffalo slots ranking. The Buffalo King vs Buffalo King Megaways comparison covers the trade-off between the two: the original for ceiling, the sequel for steadier free spins and US availability.

Untamed, the third game

Buffalo King Untamed Megaways arrived on June 20, 2024. The grid shrinks slightly (outer reels up to six symbols, middle reels up to seven, up to 86,436 ways), but random modifiers can guarantee at least 10,000 ways on a spin or add 100 extra buffalo to the reel strips. Mesa wilds sit on reels two to five.

In the free spins round, the wild multiplier builds: wilds start without a multiplier and every win with a wild on screen raises it by one for the rest of the round. Four, five or six-plus scatters give 10, 15 or 20 spins. The max win is 10,000x and the RTP 96.02%, with 95.01% and 94.00% versions at reviewers. The Ante Bet costs 50% extra here, and the feature buy is 100x.

It is not confirmed at any US casino, which keeps it out of the top ten for now.

The return gap with Aristocrat

Pragmatic Play’s buffalo games pay more on paper than Aristocrat’s online versions do. All three Buffalo King titles headline between 96.02% and 96.52%. The Aristocrat online catalog sits lower: 94.72% for the original Buffalo at OLG, 94.03% for Buffalo Chief, 95.05% for Buffalo Gold Revolution and 95.5% for Buffalo Triple Power. Even the weakest Megaways build reported in the US, 94.10% at Hard Rock Bet, still sits above Buffalo Chief’s 94.03%.

The two families also place their swings differently. Aristocrat’s free games use 2x and 3x wilds on a 1,024-ways grid. Pragmatic’s original adds x5 and multiplies the values together across six reels, which is how one win can reach x3,125. Aristocrat’s online maximums are far smaller: 300x for the original Buffalo and 4,000x for Chief, the latter a BetMGM figure.

Where the series is carried

The evidence for Buffalo King Megaways is a third-party tracker, HighStakesGuide, checked in April and July 2026, plus a review of the game on BetMGM’s US blog. Pennsylvania has the shortest list of carriers, Caesars Palace Online, BetMGM and Borgata. West Virginia has none of the three games confirmed.

The other two titles are not held back by the studio’s licences. Pragmatic Play is live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan, yet no regulated operator page for the original Buffalo King or for Untamed turned up in any of them. That can change with a single lobby update, so the reviews mark both as not confirmed and leave it there.

What to check in the lobby

Version first. The original circulates at 96.06%, 95.53% and 94.55%, the Megaways game at 96.52% and 94.51%, and Untamed at 96.02%, 95.01% and 94.00%. A casino picks one, and the help screen states which.

The extras come next. The Ante Bet and the 100x feature buy depend on the jurisdiction, so a game that offers them in one market can arrive without them in another. The stake ceiling moves as well: Bigwinboard’s default range for the Megaways game tops out at 125, while US operators set their own cap somewhere between $100 and $200. Untamed’s top bet is quoted at 240 by Bigwinboard and 360 by slotcatalog, another figure that depends on the operator and the currency.

Reading the series as a whole

The three games make a clean experiment in how one theme can be tuned. The original keeps the base design simple and puts all the risk into multiplying wilds. The Megaways game spreads the action across tumbles. Untamed takes the middle path with a multiplier that grows through the round. All three are online-only games, with no floor cabinet behind them.

For anyone choosing between them in a regulated state, the choice is already made, because only the Megaways sequel is confirmed. Elsewhere, the free demo on each review is the fairest way to compare how the three feel, and the Megaways hub sets the two Megaways editions next to the four other buffalo Megaways titles.