Avalon is one of the oldest franchises still trading in the UK market — a Microgaming Arthurian series whose 2014 sequel, Avalon II: Quest for the Grail, arguably invented the idea of a slot with a campaign. If you want slots like Avalon, the first thing worth knowing is that most roundups get the family size wrong: there are three real games, not two, because Stormcraft Studios quietly released Avalon III under the Games Global banner in May 2025 — the same studio-and-publisher pattern behind the modern Thunderstruck sequels. This page compares all three honestly, including which figures no official source still confirms.
Where to Play Avalon Slots
All three Avalon games at a glance
Nineteen years separate the first and last entries — figures checked 12 July 2026:
| Game | Year | Layout | RTP | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalon | 2006 | 5x3, 20 paylines | 96.01% | Disputed — see below |
| Avalon II: Quest for the Grail | 2014 | 5x3, 243 ways | 95.92% | Disputed — see below |
| Avalon III | 2025 | 5x4, 20 paylines | 96.3% (94.3%/92.3% builds) | 5,000x |
The two older games predate the era when studios published full spec sheets, and Microgaming’s original pages no longer exist — where reviewers disagree on a figure, this page says so rather than picking a number at random.
Every Avalon game, reviewed
1. Avalon
The 2006 original is a plain-spoken product of its decade: 5 reels, 3 rows, 20 adjustable paylines and a Lady of the Lake scatter that awards 12 free spins, retriggerable, with every free-spins win carrying a random multiplier of between 2x and 7x. Two wild symbols share the reels — the Avalon logo and a treasure chest — and a card-gamble option can double or quadruple a win. The commonly cited RTP is 96.01% at medium volatility, but its max win is genuinely murky: a 3,000x line-bet jackpot for five wilds is the most repeated figure, while other archives quote coin-denominated ceilings that don’t reconcile with it, and no official Microgaming spec sheet survives to settle the matter. Two decades on it still holds lobby slots at 32Red and Casumo’s UK sites, which is its own kind of achievement.
2. Avalon II: Quest for the Grail
Launched 5 February 2014 to coincide with the ICE Totally Gaming show in London, Avalon II swapped the original’s paylines for 243 ways and built the feature slot machines are still copying today: a Grail quest that unfolds across eight distinct bonus stages, each new trigger advancing you a step further along the map. You roll dice to reforge Excalibur at the Lake of Legend, choose your own wild in Misty Vale’s free spins, pick between the Whispering Woods and Forest Falls (20 free spins with Trailing Wilds) at the third stage, then push on through Dusky Moors, Morgan’s Keep’s Rolling Reels and the Hall of Shadows before the Isle of Avalon wheel finishes the quest. A random Merlin bonus tops up base-game spins along the way. Published RTP is 95.92% — slightly under the original — and the max win is another disputed figure: several reviewers quote 16,200x, while older sources list coin caps that imply far less. Treat any single number sceptically; we couldn’t verify one against a primary source.
3. Avalon III
Released 29 May 2025 and developed by Stormcraft Studios — the same external team that took over Thunderstruck — Avalon III moves to a 5x4 grid with 20 paylines and deliberately slims the formula down. Magic Orbs land on the central reels and build a persistent count that fires random prizes of up to 6x and 2x–3x multipliers; free spins start at 8 with the orb count carried in; and a five-tier fixed jackpot ladder runs from a Mini worth 8x to a Mega worth 1,000x–5,000x. Published at 96.3% RTP (94.3% and 92.3% builds also certified), high volatility, an 18.11% hit rate and a 5,000x ceiling, with a 100x bonus-buy option that isn’t available to UK players. Stormcraft’s own site confirms the title, though its game pages sit behind a bot-wall, so the figures here are cross-checked between BigWinBoard’s full review and UK trade coverage instead. Reviewers’ main gripe is honest enough: it has far fewer features than the 2014 game it follows.
Avalon II: quick facts
| Provider | Microgaming (in-house; catalogue now distributed by Games Global) |
|---|---|
| First released | 5 February 2014, timed to ICE Totally Gaming |
| Layout | 5 reels × 3 rows, 243 ways |
| RTP | 95.92% |
| Volatility | Mid-range per independent reviewers; no official rating survives |
| Max win | 16,200x per several reviewers — unverified against any primary source |
| Signature feature | The Grail quest — eight bonus stages that advance with each trigger, from the Lake of Legend dice roll to the Isle of Avalon wheel |
✓ Facts checked 12 July 2026
The maths: the revival is the cheapest to play
What a hundred £1 spins costs at each game’s most commonly cited RTP:
| Game | House edge | £1 × 100 spins |
|---|---|---|
| Avalon III (96.3%) | 3.70% | £3.70 |
| Avalon (96.01%) | 3.99% | £3.99 |
| Avalon II (95.92%) | 4.08% | £4.08 |
✓ Calculated from the published RTPs — checked 12 July 2026
An inversion worth noticing: the celebrated middle child is mathematically the least generous of the three, and Avalon III’s default build undercuts both its ancestors — though operators can license it at 94.3% or 92.3%, so the in-game help screen is the only figure that counts. For more on how bonus structures like the Grail quest work, our slot features hub breaks the mechanics down. Session tools live on our Responsible Gambling page.
History and legacy
Avalon arrived in 2006, when Microgaming was still building everything in-house, and did well enough to earn a sequel eight years later. That sequel is the reason this family matters: Avalon II’s eight-stage Grail quest treated a bonus round as a journey you progressed through across sessions rather than a single event, an idea that predated the whole modern fashion for persistent, collection-driven slot design. Then — nothing, for eleven years. In the meantime the corporate ground shifted underneath the franchise: Microgaming sold its distribution business to Games Global in May 2022 and rebranded to Apricot in 2024, retreating to backend services, with its game catalogue — this one included — carried forward under the Games Global banner alongside former stablemates like Immortal Romance and the Mega Moolah jackpot network. When Avalon III finally landed in May 2025, it came from Stormcraft Studios, the external team Games Global also trusts with Thunderstruck — a revival almost nobody had on their release calendar.
Why this family still matters
One game invented the slot campaign, and the franchise around it has now survived three corporate identities — Microgaming, Apricot and Games Global — without being retired. Few 2006 slots can say either.
Beyond the reels
Availability is the honest caveat with a family this old. The good news: all three games are genuinely live for UK players as of 12 July 2026 — the 2006 original still has its own game pages at 32Red and Casumo UK, Avalon II is carried by 32Red and Betway, and Avalon III is rolling out across operators that stock Stormcraft titles. The caution: legacy Microgaming games do get quietly delisted as operators prune their lobbies, and neither older title appears on any current official Games Global game list we could check, so if a specific casino matters to you, search its lobby before depositing. Games Global Operations Limited holds an active UK Gambling Commission supplier licence covering the catalogue’s UK distribution.
What players say
Avalon II still draws the sort of affection normally reserved for retired football players — the Grail quest gets cited years later as the bonus round people remember finishing, stage by stage, the way you’d remember levels in a video game. The original mostly attracts nostalgia plays and low-stakes session spinners who like its gentle 2x–7x free-spins multipliers. Early reaction to Avalon III splits cleanly: players who wanted Avalon II’s feature buffet call it thin, while those who prefer a modern, fast loop rate the orb-collection rhythm and the visible jackpot ladder.
Win records: nothing we can put a name to
No named, dated, independently corroborated record win exists for any of the three games — the older two predate the streaming era that normally documents these things, and Avalon III is too new to have produced one. Rather than recycle an anecdote we can’t trace, we’ll note the ceilings instead: 5,000x is the only manufacturer-confirmed maximum in the family (Avalon III), and any bigger number you see quoted for Avalon II comes from review sites, not from Microgaming or Games Global.
Which Avalon game is worth your time in 2026?
| If you want… | Play | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The landmark — the slot campaign that started it all | Avalon II | Eight bonus stages, 243 ways, still unlike anything else in the lobby |
| A gentle, old-school session | Avalon (2006) | Simple free spins, modest multipliers, slightly better RTP than its sequel |
| The best maths and a modern pace | Avalon III | 96.3% default build, jackpot ladder, confirmed 5,000x ceiling |
The closest slots like Avalon outside the family
None of these are Avalon sequels — they are cross-studio games sharing at least one of this family’s defining traits: an Arthurian or medieval setting, or a staged, persistent bonus you progress through over time. Ordered by closeness of the match. Published RTPs vary by operator build; “operator unchecked” means we verified the supplier’s GB registration but not a specific lobby listing.
| Alternative | Studio | Year | Shared trait | Theme | RTP | Volatility | Max win | Why it is close | Important difference | UK availability and evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sword and the Grail | Play’n GO | 2019 | Grail-hunt free spins with a persistent sword-multiplier collection | Arthurian | 96.50% per independent aggregators — Play’n GO’s own page confirms the release but publishes no RTP | High | 10,000x per aggregators | The most literal Grail-quest successor on the market — theme and progression both match | One evolving free-spins feature rather than Avalon II’s eight discrete stages | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). Play’n GO official game page; UKGC account 55949 |
| Thunderstruck II | Games Global (Microgaming) | 2010 | Great Hall of Spins — four bonus modes unlocked across repeat triggers | Norse mythology | ~96.65% | Medium–high | 8,000x–8,100x (sources vary slightly) | The other great Microgaming persistence experiment — its unlock ladder is the Grail quest’s closest mechanical sibling, from the same era and stable | Four modes rather than eight stages, and no pick-and-progress map between them | Supplier registration verified; confirmed at UK operators in our own Thunderstruck guide (12 Jul 2026). Games Global corporate site; UKGC account 58841 |
| Kingdoms Rise: Guardians of the Abyss | Playtech | 2019 | Persistent token collection spent in a cross-game Features Shop | Fantasy quest suite | 96.09% | Medium–high | Not officially published | The fullest modern realisation of what Avalon II hinted at — progress that genuinely persists between sessions and across an eleven-game suite | The progression is a meta-layer across many games, not a bonus journey inside one | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). Playtech publishes no public per-game pages — figures from our own Kingdoms Rise guide’s research. Playtech corporate site; UKGC account 38516 |
| Immortal Romance | Games Global (Microgaming) | 2011 | Chamber of Spins — character bonus modes that unlock the more you trigger | Vampire romance | 96.86% | Medium–high | 12,150x | Same unlock-over-time design philosophy, and the best default RTP of anything in this table | Story-led rather than quest-led; you unlock characters, not map stages | Supplier registration verified; confirmed at UK operators in our own Immortal Romance guide (12 Jul 2026). Games Global corporate site; UKGC account 58841 |
| Excalibur Unleashed | Pragmatic Play | 2023 | Sticky-wild multiplier reels through free spins | Excalibur / Arthurian | 96.05% per Pragmatic’s own game page | High | 5,000x per reviewers | The most recent big-studio take on the Excalibur legend, with wild reels that grow +1x per winning combination | No staged progression at all — the Arthurian link is theme, not structure | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). Pragmatic Play official game page; UKGC account 56015 |
| Rise of Merlin | Play’n GO | 2019 | Expanding-symbol free spins in Arthurian clothes | Merlin / Arthurian | 96.58% per independent aggregators; the official page confirms the 17 June 2019 release but lists no figures | High | 5,000x per aggregators | If Avalon’s draw is the mythology rather than the quest structure, this is the sharpest-maths Merlin game around | It’s a book-style expanding-symbol slot underneath — closer to Book of Dead than to anything Microgaming built | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). Play’n GO official game page; UKGC account 55949 |
| Gonzo’s Quest | NetEnt | 2010 | A named hero’s quest with escalating Avalanche multipliers | Conquistador expedition | 95.97% | Medium | 1,875x–2,500x — a figure even NetEnt’s own materials have disputed, as our guide covers | The other famous quest slot of Avalon II’s generation, built on forward motion rather than static reels | The journey is theatrical, not mechanical — no stages persist between spins | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). NetEnt official game page; UKGC account 39360 |
| 300 Shields | NextGen (now Light & Wonder) | 2014 | Battle free spins with a shield-collection multiplier climbing to 300x | Ancient battlefield | 95.29–95.30% | High | ~10,000x | Same launch year as Avalon II and the same idea in miniature: collect your way toward a bigger endgame | Spartan warfare rather than Camelot, and the collection lives only inside one bonus round | Supplier registration verified; operator lobby unchecked (12 Jul 2026). Only the 2019 Extreme edition appears in Light & Wonder’s current catalogue — original figures come from our own 300 Shields guide. Light & Wonder current catalogue; UKGC account 41115 |
Evidence status is per row. A GB supplier licence confirms the studio may distribute to UK operators — not that a given casino carries a given build today; the in-game help screen is always the final word.
Our verdict on the Avalon family
Sister Slots score: 7/10 — one genuine landmark, one charming antique, and a revival that plays it safe.
| Features | 9/10 for Avalon II’s eight-stage quest; 5/10 for the slimmed-down revival — the family’s whole range in one row |
|---|---|
| Win potential | 6/10 — 5,000x is the only confirmed ceiling here, and the older games’ bigger claims don’t verify |
| Design | 7/10 — Avalon III looks genuinely handsome; the 2006 game looks exactly its age |
| Playability | 7/10 — all three run fine on mobile today, which is more than most 2006 slots can claim |
Play here if you want to experience the slot that invented the campaign bonus, or a modern jackpot-ladder take on the same legend. Look elsewhere if you need verified spec sheets for everything you play — the two older games simply don’t have them any more.
Avalon FAQs
Who makes the Avalon slots?
The 2006 original and Avalon II were built in-house by Microgaming. Avalon III (2025) was developed by Stormcraft Studios and is distributed under the Games Global banner, which took over Microgaming’s catalogue in 2022.
How many Avalon slot games are there?
Three: Avalon (2006), Avalon II: Quest for the Grail (2014) and Avalon III (2025). Most roundups still list only two — the third arrived quietly in May 2025.
Is Avalon III real?
Yes — released 29 May 2025 by Stormcraft Studios for Games Global, on a 5x4 grid with 20 paylines, a five-tier fixed jackpot and a 5,000x max win.
What was special about Avalon II’s bonus?
Its Grail quest ran across eight separate bonus stages — dice games, pick rounds, four different free-spins variants and a finishing wheel — with each trigger advancing you further along the quest, years before persistent progression became an industry fashion.
What is the RTP of Avalon II?
95.92% — slightly below the 2006 original’s 96.01% and Avalon III’s 96.3% default build.
Can I still play the original Avalon in the UK?
Yes, as of 12 July 2026 it holds live game pages at 32Red and Casumo UK — but legacy titles do get delisted without notice, so check your casino’s lobby before depositing.
What is Avalon II’s max win?
Genuinely unresolved. Several reviewers quote 16,200x, older archives imply much smaller coin-based caps, and no official Microgaming spec sheet survives — we don’t treat any single figure as confirmed.
Is there a progressive jackpot in this family?
No. Avalon III’s five jackpot tiers are fixed multipliers of your stake (Mini 8x up to Mega 1,000x–5,000x), not a pooled progressive like Mega Moolah.
Sources & Verification
Primary sources checked 12 July 2026: Games Global’s corporate site; Stormcraft Studios’ own site (which confirms Avalon III but blocks automated readers, so its figures were cross-checked against BigWinBoard’s full review and UK trade coverage); live UK operator lobbies at 32Red, Betway and Casumo for availability; and the UK Gambling Commission’s public register (Games Global Operations Limited, account 58841).
Paul edits Sister Slots’ UK slot-family guides. He researches provider histories, mechanics and published game data, checking material claims against provider sources and relevant public records. Unless a page states a dated hands-on method, it reflects documented editorial research rather than real-money play. More about Paul →