WildPops Demo & review

Every win in WildPops pops into two new symbols, grows its reel and feeds a multiplier that has no ceiling. Fill all five reels to seven high and the chain earns three extra lives, so a dead screen re-spins instead of ending the round. This is the second PopWins game from Avatar UX, released in July 2020, and there is nothing to buy. It suits patient players who would rather watch one spin grow than chase a free-spins trigger.

How WildPops works

A spin starts on a 5x3 board showing 486 ways. Wins are counted from the leftmost reel first, and if a symbol does not reach three reels from that side, it is counted from the right instead. Every winning symbol then pops and two new symbols drop into its place, which makes that reel one symbol taller. The chain repeats until a screen has no win, and each reel can grow to seven high.

The opening board at a 1 EUR bet: multiplier tube at x1, 486 ways, and the Random Wild bar under the reels. FluxPlays demo test, 3 November 2026.

What feeds what:

1. Pops grow the reels, which adds ways and room for bigger wins.
2. Every seven pops add 1 to the multiplier, with no limit.
3. Three wins in a row drop two Random Wilds, and again at six and nine.
4. All five reels at seven high add 1 more to the multiplier and start Bonus Mode with three extra lives.

The multiplier carries the game. Random Wilds keep a chain going, and Bonus Mode is the prize for a chain that fills the board.

Symbols and what they pay

The paytable is short, and one symbol sits apart from the rest. The Super High symbol is not on the spinning reels at all: it can only arrive from a pop, so it shows up only once a chain is already running.

The Wild substitutes for every other symbol. Pays are multiples of the bet, and ways multiply them, so a symbol that fills three tall reels pays many times its line value.

The paytable: the Super High symbol pays 30x the bet for five and appears only from pops. FluxPlays demo test, 3 November 2026.

The WildPops multiplier, Random Wilds and Bonus Mode

The multiplier

The tube on the left of the board starts each spin at x1 and rises by 1 for every seven symbols that pop. Nothing caps it. It lives for one spin, so a long chain is the only way to build it, and the next spin starts again from x1. A fully unlocked board adds one more step on top.

Random Wilds

The bar under the reels counts wins in a row within one spin. The third straight win drops two wilds onto random positions, and the count carries on, so a sixth and a ninth win do it again. In practice the wilds are what turn a three-step chain into a long one: they land on a board that is already taller than it started.

The rules for Random Wilds (three wins in a row) and the Bonus Mode lives. FluxPlays demo test, 3 November 2026.

Bonus Mode: three extra lives

Bonus Mode starts the moment all five reels reach seven high. You get three Extra Lives. Normally a screen with no win ends the chain, but in Bonus Mode a dead screen uses a life for a re-spin, and the multiplier stays where it was. The Random Wild count resets each time a life is used. The round ends when a dead screen comes with no lives left.

We saw it once, in a run of extra spins after the logged test. The chain had already paid $30.40 when the board filled. The unlock took the tube to x6 and awarded the three lives. A dead screen spent the first heart, the next heart bought a win at x6, the tube climbed to x7 on the following screen, and the last heart bought one more win before a dead screen with no lives left ended the round at $35.80.

Full unlock: the board reaches seven high and +1 Multiplier takes the tube from x5 to x6. FluxPlays demo test, 9 November 2026.

Bonus Mode starts: three hearts unlocked at x6, with 30.40 paid so far. FluxPlays demo test, 9 November 2026.

The first life spent on a dead screen, the multiplier kept at x6. FluxPlays demo test, 9 November 2026.

The lives added only a small part of that total, which is the honest shape of the feature: it keeps a chain breathing rather than handing out the win by itself. Avatar UX publishes no figure for how often a board fills, and it cannot be bought.

The intro screen: three bonus lives for a fully unlocked board. FluxPlays demo test, 3 November 2026.

WildPops RTP, volatility and max win

The rules in the demo give 96.136%. Avatar UX's page lists two versions, 96% and 94%, and the casino picks which one it runs. On the lower version you get back about two cents less per dollar over the long run, which matters more on a game that leans on rare long chains. Avatar UX rates the variance Super High, shown in the table as V.High. The top win comes from the provider's page, as the recorded rules give no cap and do not say how it is reached.

Our WildPops demo test

The chains stayed short. Most of the 22 paying spins returned less than the bet, and the multiplier rose above x1 on only 11 of them. The best one came on spin 79: five steps in a row pushed the tube to x5 and paid $10.40. Three stretches of ten spins or more paid nothing at all, which is how a game with no bonus feels when chains do not start. No chain filled the board within those logged spins.

To see Bonus Mode we went back on 9 November and kept spinning at the same bet in a fresh session. These extra spins are not part of the card. It took 195 of them to reach Bonus Mode once. All 198 staked $198.00 and returned $82.30, and that Bonus Mode round was the biggest win among them. One session this size shows the rhythm of the game, not what it returns over time.

Bonus Mode settled at 35.80, multiplier tube at x7, on an extra spin after the logged 100. FluxPlays demo test, 9 November 2026.

The board after spin 100, balance 9,927.70 on a 10,000 start. FluxPlays demo test, 3 November 2026.

Is WildPops worth playing?

For fans of growing reels who do not need free spins, yes. WildPops is one mechanic followed all the way: pops build the board, the board builds the multiplier, and Bonus Mode keeps that multiplier alive when the wins stop. There is no second game to wait for, which is both its charm and its limit. Players who want a trigger to chase, or a buy to skip the wait, will find the dead stretches long.

Lollipop, a later PopWins game from Avatar UX, caps its base multiplier at x6 but adds a free-spins collect round and two buys. Pick it if you want a bonus to aim for. Choose WildPops for a pure base game where the multiplier never stops climbing.

In the demo, watch the Random Wild bar under the reels. It shows how close a chain is to its next pair of wilds, and that tells you more about a spin than the win counter does.

A chain from the extra spins, after the logged 100, settled at 21.30 with the tube at x4 and one reel short of a full board. FluxPlays demo test, 9 November 2026.