Guide
What is a bonus hunt?
A bonus hunt is a way of playing slots where you spin several different games until each one lands its bonus feature, leave every bonus unplayed, and then open them all one after another at the end. The result of the hunt is the total those bonuses pay back compared with the money spent collecting them. Across 16,341 bonus opens recorded in 795 live bonus hunts, the typical bonus paid 49.9× the bet.
By Johnessy · Updated · Figures live from 16,341 recorded bonus opens
Key facts
- Two phases: collecting (spinning until bonuses land) and opening (playing every saved bonus).
- Bonuses are usually collected by spinning normally or by buying them outright where bonus buys are allowed.
- Each bonus is measured as a multiplier of the bet it was triggered on, so £0.40 and £4 spins compare fairly.
- A typical hunt here holds about 21 bonuses (16,341 opens over 795 hunts).
- 29.4% of recorded bonuses paid 100× or more; 0.7% paid nothing at all.
How a bonus hunt works, step by step
A streamer or player sets a starting balance and picks a list of slots. Each game is played until it triggers its free spins or bonus round. Instead of playing that bonus straight away, the player leaves it waiting (many modern slots let you save a triggered feature, and some casinos and tools track them) and moves on to the next game.
Once the list is collected, the "opening" phase starts: every saved bonus is played in turn and its win is recorded against the bet size it was triggered on. The hunt finishes when the last bonus is opened, and the total paid out is compared with the starting balance.
Bonus hunts are popular on slot streams because the opening phase packs the most exciting part of slots, the features, into one sitting. They do not change the odds of any game: every bonus pays out exactly as it would have if it had been played the moment it landed.
What results do bonus hunts actually produce?
This site publishes every bonus opened in the hunts it tracks, wins and losses alike. Across 16,341 bonus opens recorded in 795 live bonus hunts on 1,859 different slots, the middle (median) bonus returned 49.9× the bet, while the average was 128.7×.
The gap between those two numbers is the key to bonus hunts: most bonuses pay modestly (50% paid under 50×) and a small number of very big hits (4.2% of bonuses reached 500× or more) pull the average up. A hunt that misses those big hits usually ends below its starting balance.
These are recorded observations from past play, not a prediction. Slot outcomes are random and every hunt starts from zero.
Why streamers track hunts with a tracker
Keeping score by hand gets messy at 20 or more bonuses, so most streamers use a hunt tracker that lists each slot, its bet size and its win, and shows the running break-even multiplier on screen. The hunts on this site are tracked with StreamNeeds, the bonus hunt tracker Johnessy co-founded, which is where the published figures come from.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a bonus hunt a good way to win money?
- No. A bonus hunt is a format for playing, not a strategy. It does not change the return of any slot, and most hunts finish below their starting balance. Only play with money you can afford to lose. 18+.
- How many bonuses are in a bonus hunt?
- There is no fixed number. In the hunts recorded on this site the average was about 21 bonuses per hunt, but small hunts of 5 and large ones of 50 or more are both common.
- What does BE mean in a bonus hunt?
- BE is the break-even multiplier: the average multiplier every remaining bonus needs to pay for the hunt to get back to its starting balance. It goes down when a bonus pays well and up when one pays badly.
- What is the opening phase?
- The opening phase is the second half of a bonus hunt, when every saved bonus is played one by one and its win is recorded.
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Figures are recorded observations from past live play, not predictions. Gambling is 18+ and can be addictive. Read our responsible gambling guidance and editorial policy.