What are the Most Played Online Casino Games in 2023?

Have you ever wondered what the most popular online casino games are? Maybe as a player you want to know what you’re missing out on, or to see what else is out there. Or perhaps as a developer you want to see what the secret sauce of other games are and how you can apply that to your game? Whatever your curiosity, find answers in this guide. Take a look at our list of the most popular casino online games of 2023 and what makes them stand out in a market full of games in the casino. Find out all the details here.

Poker

Poker is one of the most popular games in casinos around the world, to the point that there are regular tournaments that make stars of their players around the world. Unlike pure games of chance, poker offers players the ability to leverage skill, strategy, decision-making and practice to improve their game. There is great appeal in a game that rewards skilful play, as it gives the player a level of control over their winnings. Additionally, you aren’t competing against the house, but against other players. Head-to-head battles create natural drama and tension. The drive to outplay opponents makes poker inherently compelling as a test of card savvy, which is easy to see if you’ve ever seen a cowboy movie.

Nowadays, poker has been injected with a new vigour since the internet and the online experience has elevated poker. Poker tournaments no longer take a flight to Las Vegas to take part in. With live dealer online casinos, you can get a much more immersive experience, with a real dealer playing with you and real players at the “table” to play against, all against the backdrop of a real casino streamed to you.

Blackjack

Blackjack is the casino game that easily has the most iterations in the online space. Like poker, it has a level of skill and decision making that allows the player control, but it’s also simpler than poker and doesn’t take multiple players, so it’s easy to package into an online product. Additionally, it’s quite beginner friendly. The straightforward rules and fast gameplay allow new players to pick up the game quickly while keeping veterans engaged through multiple speedy hands.

Additionally, with options to hit, stand, double down and split, blackjack provides players with nerve-wracking risk-based decisions that make winning extremely gratifying. That, paired with the low house edge that blackjack affords, makes winning at blackjack more satisfying than most casino games.

Blackjack also comes in live dealer form, but it is much more popular in online video casino game form. It’s a classic that everyone is looking for, and playing solo is a lot more common than poker, which makes it perfect for online playing. Plus, with hands resolving rapidly, blackjack offers the ability to play many hands in a short time. This works well for the attention span of online audiences.

Roulette

Another beginner-friendly game, roulette has a few different variations. The two staples are American and European roulette, the difference being an extra 00 slot in the American wheel that favours the player, but you can also get Las Vegas roulette, Spanish roulette, and variations even within that online. Having a European or American roulette wheel integrated today into many online casino platforms makes the game readily available to new generations of players.

Unlike blackjack and poker, roulette is a loud and fast-paced game. The fever is celebrated rather than simmering in roulette. With rounds rapidly resolving one after another, roulette offers nonstop wagering action that keeps excitement levels high in the casino. Adding to this fever is the variety of bets available from roulette. Players can make inside bets on specific numbers or outside bets on groupings of numbers in dozens of ways, accommodating varying preferences. Despite this, it’s still considered one of the simplest games to pick up: choose a number or colour, make a bet, and spin.

But what really makes roulette stand out is the glamour of the game. Roulette was the mother of the casino, a game that originated in Paris. So, rather than cowboys gruffly muttering “hit me” or “hold”, you can imagine being an aristocrat with a monster wig on when you play. Today, the image of a ball smoothly rolling around the iconic wheel, along with roulette’s deep ties to classic Monte Carlo culture, exude sophistication. It’s a game that James Bond would be playing, rather than Clint Eastwood.

Bingo

Believe it or not, bingo thrives online. The marker of bingo that makes it different from other gambling games is that it is community focussed. You go to the bingo hall to meet friends and chat in between rounds, games are held in community venues or purpose-built bingo halls, and usually it’s paired with an event like brunch or drag night.

Therefore, it’s clear why bingo would be an obvious fit for the worldwide community centre that is the internet. Modern online bingo comes with a chatroom and prompts to keep that community vibe, and otherwise the game is neatly contained in a RNG platform and announced by a program.

This makes for a much more convenient experience, since bingo halls are brought to you via your phone, tablet or laptop. But it’s also more exciting. Unlike live sessions, online bingo offers continuous overlapping games that eliminate waiting, keeping the pace brisk between balls drawn. Additionally, with the wider player pool that is available due to the internet, there are bigger jackpots to win. By networking huge numbers of players across international markets, online bingo creates enormous prize pools unattainable in brick-and-mortar versions.

Plus, bingo has been given new creative life with the internet. Web-based platforms introduce modern twists to classic bingo, adding elements like progressive jackpots, bonus spins, and prize wheels to heighten appeal, making for a much more enthralling game than what you are imagining your grandma playing.

Slots

Practically, slots are a great online gambling product. Easily packaged, easy to pick up, room for creativity in the product. This means that not only are they popular amongst developers but popular amongst players. Casinos are filled with swathes of video slots, so it only makes sense to put them online where anyone can access them as much as possible.

This accessibility has leant a hand to narrative and gameplay creativity. Every theme you can think of can be packaged in a slot machine, and fun with the gameplay elements has led to developers literally reinventing the wheel, with slot machines switched from reels to a roulette wheel format.

To take a closer look, here are some of the most popular slot machines on the internet and we’ll look at what makes them stand out.

– Big Bass Bonanza

Big Bass Bonanza is like the Marvel Cinematic Universe of slot machines, in that there seems to be a new one released every year with some variation on the format. There are at least five of these Pragmatic Play games with different mechanics and chances to win, including: Big Bass Bonanza Hold & Spinner, Big Bass Bonanza Keeping It Reel, and Christmas Big Bass Bonanza.

The core game has a relaxing fishing narrative, with cartoonish graphics that include icons that feature bait, fishing rods, fishing kits and various sizes of fish that all come to a value. Additionally, there is a wild symbol in the form of the fisherman, holding his catch of the day. It will replace icons to create more paylines. There is also a scatter symbol in the form of the titular bass, which offers free spins and will combine with money symbols for big wins. The money symbol has multipliers that range from 2x to 2000x your total bet.

And that’s just the core game. With every iteration there are more jackpot features, like the Megaways Big Bass Bonanza that features Megaways wins.

– Starburst

Starburst is one of the most popular slot machines as you might pick up on thanks to its featuring in various casino homepages. It, too, has a few iterations, like Starburst Xxxtreme and Slingo Starburst. Slingo Starburst is a fun twist on the game that is a mash of bingo and slot machines. When you spin, you’re assigned an icon that you can dab off and you win once you get a row or a “payline”.

The Starburst franchise, as you can imagine, puts you amongst the stars. It’s like a classic slot machine with a galaxy twist. The icons are made up of different coloured gems against the backdrop of a purple nebula. It’s almost like playing in the arcade with its different vibrant lights.

– Cleopatra

Cleopatra is the most popular and recognisable of the ancient Egyptian slot genre. With detailed and golden icons that feature scarabs, reefs, runes, staffs, and the queen of Egypt herself, the Cleopatra brings the fun in the graphics and the gameplay. The Cleopatra icon doubles as a wild symbol that makes more paylines and doubles wins wherever they get them. A fiery orange version of Cleopatra makes up the Cleopatra Bonus, which acts as a scatter symbol worth 15 free spins and offers up to 100x your total bet.

So, after this list, is your favourite among them or do you have an alternative?