Pay Anywhere has overtaken Book Of and Megaways in SlotCatalog’s recorded title totals. This Ace Alliance x SlotCatalog report compares the three slot mechanics through August 2026, examining release trends, provider adoption, and licensing models to explore how their development differs and what those differences mean for operators and providers.
Book Of had the longest history, but Megaways brought a different kind of advantage: proprietary technology that other studios could license. Big Time Gaming’s licensing agreement with Blueprint Gaming shows how its patented and trademarked mechanic became a product other providers could build around.
Neither advantage guaranteed the largest catalogue. By August 2026, Pay Anywhere had reached 1,174 titles, roughly 44% of the combined title counts across the three mechanics, ahead of Book Of’s 825 and Megaways’ 677. The format that spent years trailing its rivals now leads this comparison.
As recently as 2021, the picture looked very different. Book Of and Megaways were almost level at 136 and 135 releases that year, while Pay Anywhere recorded just 14. By 2023, Pay Anywhere had overtaken both in annual releases. It went on to reach 377 releases in the first eight months of 2026 alone, more than its two rivals produced together over the same period.
Provider adoption shows another contrast. Of the 472 studios active across these three mechanics, 94 had released a Megaways title, compared with 362 for Pay Anywhere. Licensing introduces an additional commercial requirement for studios developing Megaways games, making it relevant to that comparison. However, the counts alone cannot establish how much of the gap reflects licensing, development priorities or player demand.
The central shift is clear: Pay Anywhere now leads this comparison in both catalogue size and provider adoption, despite its much slower start.
Comparison Period: This report tracks release trends from January 2016 to August 2026. All-time totals (825 Book Of, 677 Megaways and 1,174 Pay Anywhere titles) also include a small number of Book Of and Pay Anywhere games released before 2016. These fall outside the trend window and are addressed in the methodology notes.
Pay Anywhere leads this comparison in both catalogue size and provider adoption. Looking at these measures together shows how much content each mechanic has generated and how widely studios have adopted it.
| Metric | Book Of | Megaways | Pay Anywhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total titles, all-time to August 2026 | 825 | 677 | 1,174 |
| Share of combined mechanic counts | 30.8% | 25.3% | 43.9% |
| Early reference title | Book of Ra | Dragon Born | Money Rain |
| Providers that have released a title | 228 of 472 | 94 of 472 | 362 of 472 |
| Highest yearly release count recorded | 2021: 136 | 2021: 135 | 2026 YTD: 377 |
| Releases in January–August 2026 | 62 | 30 | 377 |
| Access model | Open design pattern | Licensed by Big Time Gaming | Open design pattern |
Title counts include releases before 2016. Games combining mechanics can appear in more than one category, so the combined counts should not be read as a total of distinct games. Figures for 2026 cover January–August only.
Pay Anywhere accounts for approximately 44% of the combined title counts across the three mechanics. Its lead also extends to recent production: in the first eight months of 2026, providers released more Pay Anywhere titles than Book Of and Megaways titles combined.
Catalogue size, however, does not show whether production is concentrated among a few studios or spread across a wider field. Provider adoption adds that perspective.
Pay Anywhere has been adopted by more than three-quarters of the studios in this comparison. Looking at providers that concentrate on just one of these mechanics reveals a further distinction:
These counts refer only to the three mechanics examined here, not to each studio’s full portfolio. They show that Pay Anywhere’s broader adoption includes a substantial group of providers with no releases in either competing format.
Big Time Gaming’s Megaways licensing agreements allow other providers to develop games using its patented and trademarked mechanic. Developing a Megaways title therefore involves a commercial agreement as well as the game’s production requirements.
That distinction makes licensing relevant to the adoption comparison. However, the figures do not establish why individual studios chose one mechanic over another, or how much of the gap reflects licensing costs, development priorities or player demand.
The annual release data shows a clear change in production leadership. Book Of and Megaways both peaked in 2021, while Pay Anywhere moved ahead in 2023 and continued expanding. The 2026 figures cover January–August only, so they should be read separately from completed calendar years.
The three mechanics followed increasingly different paths:
These changes took place against a substantial increase in overall production. Average monthly releases tracked by SlotCatalog rose from approximately 170 in 2016 to 740 in January–August 2026, more than fourfold.
July 2026 provides a snapshot of Pay Anywhere’s position within that larger market. The mechanic recorded 60 releases, its highest monthly total in the dataset, out of 759 slots tracked that month—approximately 7.9%.
Pay Anywhere also represented four out of every five releases counted across the three mechanics that July. Its lead therefore extends beyond the accumulated catalogue to the composition of current slot production.
Three archetypes emerge once you split the ten biggest producers by mechanic mix.
Spinomenal (112 Book Of, 0 Megaways, 1 Pay Anywhere), Gamomat (32/0/0), Swintt (24/0/3), Play’n GO (22/0/4) and Greentube (21/0/4) picked a lane years ago and never left it. For these studios, Book Of is the entire mechanic identity, not a side option.
Blueprint (78 Megaways), Iron Dog Studio (75), Big Time Gaming itself (44, the mechanic’s IP owner), Red Tiger (43), iSoftBet (41) and MGA Games (34) make up the licensed club. Blueprint and Iron Dog Studio especially lean almost entirely into Megaways and barely touch the other two mechanics at all, treating the license less as a side format and more as their core product line.
Pragmatic Play is the outlier worth naming directly: 10 Book Of, 68 Megaways (licensed from Big Time Gaming) and 88 Pay Anywhere. It’s the only top-tier studio building meaningfully across all three mechanics rather than picking one. Octoplay (35, effectively pure Pay Anywhere) and SabaPlay (22, pure) represent the newer-guard studios for whom Pay Anywhere is simply the default starting mechanic: no license fee, no paylines to design, no explaining required for the player.
Zoom in from provider strategy to individual titles, using SlotCatalog’s Norway popularity ranking (SlotRank) as of August 2026, and a few names at the top of each list are genuinely surprising.
Across 2,676 titles in this dataset, only 10 games combine two of these three mechanics in the same title, and every single one pairs Megaways with something else. Not one game in the dataset combines Book Of with Pay Anywhere.
| Game | Vendor | Mechanics combined | SlotRank (Aug 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book of Tut Megaways | Pragmatic Play | Megaways + Book Of | 1,151 |
| Sugarlicious EveryWay | Red Tiger | Megaways + Pay Anywhere | 3,891 |
| Book of Cats Megaways | BGAMING | Megaways + Book Of | 4,949 |
| Book of Panda Megaways | BGAMING | Megaways + Book Of | 5,207 |
| Ali Baba's Luck Megaways | Max Win Gaming | Megaways + Book Of | 7,796 |
| Medal Winner Megaways | KA Gaming | Megaways + Book Of | 11,199 |
| Book of Gems Megaways | Skywind Group | Megaways + Book Of | 14,532 |
| Stadium Megaways | Atlantic Digital | Megaways + Pay Anywhere | 15,240 |
| Chicken Burst Megaways | Wizard Games | Megaways + Pay Anywhere | 27,384 |
| 777 Calda Megaways | MGA Games | Megaways + Pay Anywhere | 30,000 |
Every one of these ranks well outside the top 1,000. The best-placed hybrid sits at 1,151, the weakest at 30,000. Compare that with the pure-mechanic flagships from the section above: Book of the Fallen, Book of Dead and Book of Ra Deluxe all sit inside the top 15 most popular slots tracked on SlotCatalog. Blending two mechanics hasn’t produced a single breakout hit in this dataset. The market keeps rewarding a clean, recognisable implementation of one mechanic over a combination of two, and no designer here has yet found a way to make Book Of’s positional expanding symbol play nicely with Pay Anywhere’s positionless win logic.
“Book Of” is both a recognised mechanic label and a widely used naming pattern. The two do not always describe the same thing, which matters when classifying games or organising casino lobbies.
The title appears in Yggdrasil’s game catalogue, combining expanding symbols with a collection feature that enhances the free-spins round. Its name takes the familiar “Book Of” naming pattern literally.
Book of Blarney Gigablox, for example, uses oversized Gigablox symbols and several bonus features rather than the conventional randomly selected expanding-symbol bonus. The familiar name therefore sits alongside a different game structure.
The book motif in Egyptian slots can act as shorthand for familiar bonus features, rather than simply suggesting a cultural setting. That makes naming and imagery useful cues, but a game’s rules should still determine its mechanic classification.
Maximum-win figures provide another point of comparison between the three mechanics. Most titles sit below the highest advertised ceilings, while a smaller group pushes into much larger multipliers.
Approximately 72% of games with a declared maximum win fall below 15,000x, while 116 titles list potential payouts of 50,000x or more. These larger figures represent the upper end of the dataset, rather than the typical title.
Comparing published listings reveals another issue: the same game can carry different maximum-win figures on its provider’s website and its distributor’s catalogue. Selected Big Time Gaming titles illustrate the discrepancy.
| Game | Provider | Declared Max Win: BTG |
Declared Max Win: Light & Wonder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks Megaways | Big Time Gaming | 150,335x | 75,830x |
| Golden Goose Megaways | Big Time Gaming | 29,030x | 150,335x |
| Max Megaways 2 | Big Time Gaming | 147,620x | 147,620x |
| Max Megaways | Big Time Gaming | 139,200x | 139,200x |
Figures are expressed as multiples of the stake. The comparison records published listings, not independently verified maximum payouts for matching game versions.
The Max Megaways titles agree across the two sources. Fireworks Megaways and Golden Goose Megaways do not. Both figures are retained to make those differences visible, without assuming which listing is correct.
The discrepancy concerns published information, not proof that a game’s underlying maths has changed. Different versions, configurations, or outdated listings could explain the differences, but provider clarification is needed to establish the cause.
For operators, the practical step is to check the documentation for the specific game version before using a maximum-win figure in promotional materials. That figure describes an upper payout limit, not its probability or an expected outcome. It should also be distinguished from RTP and house edge, which describe theoretical long-term returns rather than the largest possible payout.
The findings point to practical choices in lobby curation and game development. Operators can use them to assess catalogue balance and discoverability, while providers can weigh licensing requirements, competition and opportunities to give their next release a distinct identity.
Pay Anywhere now leads this comparison in catalogue size and provider adoption. Its continued expansion puts greater emphasis on what each new release adds to an increasingly crowded field.
I’d test every new Pay Anywhere concept against the existing catalogue. Does it change the maths model, introduce a distinctive theme or offer a meaningful feature? If it only adds to the release count, I’d rethink the concept before committing to production.
Want a personalised version of this report? Reach out to Misha Kachanov, CBO at SlotCatalog, to find out more.
