JL3 Hit frequency Explained — How Often a Game Pays Anything

Should you want to grasp a single term on a casino page properly, Hit frequency makes a reasonable candidate.

Hit frequency (also called hit rate) — What counts here is the proportion of spins returning any win at all, however small; the total returned over time does not enter into it.

What Hit frequency actually means

Hit frequency answers a basic question: across every spin, what share returns something, even if that is less than was staked. Like RTP and volatility, it follows from the game’s paytable and reel maths, but it speaks to a different question than either. Hit frequency tells you only how often the reels stop on some winning combination; RTP covers the long-run total returned, and volatility covers its distribution between frequent-small and rare-large.

The common misreading

The usual guess is that hitting often makes a game pay more, or makes it ‘looser’. It does not follow. Take two games: the first hits on 40% of spins but returns only 90% in total because most hits are under the stake, and the second hits on 15% of spins and returns 97% since it pays well when it hits. Total return size is fixed apart from win frequency, and neither drives the other.

Comparison tables can leave the impression of a single ‘how good is this game’ score by blurring hit frequency, RTP and volatility, which are really three separate things. Since the three numbers move independently, a game can have frequent hits and low volatility, frequent hits and high volatility, or any other combination, and a full picture needs all of them.

A worked example

On average and over a large sample, a game with a 25% hit frequency returns something on roughly one spin in four and nothing on the other three. In a run of 400 spins that means around 100 wins, mostly worth less than the stake where the game’s RTP and volatility are moderate. To learn if those 100 wins add up to more or less than was staked, look at RTP, since that figure does not tell you.

Using it in practice

RTP alone understates how long the dry spells will be on a game with low hit frequency, which matters to the feel of a session regardless of the long-run maths. To judge what a session will actually feel like, read hit frequency and RTP together where the studio publishes both; either one alone gives a much weaker sense.

On the game pages of this site, terms like Hit frequency come up often, and an unpublished studio figure is noted as unpublished and not filled in from a comparison site. The empty spots in several spec tables here exist because of this.

Checking Hit frequency at JL3

1. Find the info or help screen of a game at JL3 after opening it.
2. Once you spot Hit frequency there, read it according to the definition above.
3. Before choosing one to play at JL3, set it next to the same entry on another title.
4. Before the first round at JL3, note down your stake and the point at which you will stop.