How Does Starburst Retain Its Number One Position Among Online Slots?

How Does Starburst Retain Its Number One Position Among Online Slots?

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A new year, the same story. Ever since 2012 when NetEnt released Starburst, the online slot has been the number one slot game at casinos. Today, a decade later, millions of players worldwide select their operator based on whether its library contains Starburst.

The industry hasn’t seen anything like it before or after, with the slot becoming a regular part of 21st-century popular culture. What we want to know is, how does it keep on performing so strongly?

It’s Timeless

Lots of modern slots like to use themes. Starburst is no different, yet its approach is less complicated than the current trend. For example, any list outlining popular slots will include games that take inspiration from movies or TV shows, such as Narcos and American Dad. Others stick to sports, like Basketball Star or Street Fighter. Meanwhile, Starburst focuses on eight gems, including a wild.

Plus, the features aren’t confusing or overwhelming. Rather than progressive jackpots and features such as Megaways and Megapays, NetEnt keeps everything as simple as possible to ensure customers can follow the action. As a result, Starburst is a title that people want to play all the time, regardless of the time of year or the current popular trend.

Christmas is a prime example. During the festive season, slots with a Christmassy theme always rank highly on the lists of the most popular casino games since everyone is in the festive spirit. So, you’d expect the likes of Secret Santa and Santa Surprise to be in demand in November and December, which they are, but not to the same extent as Starburst. When this online guide worked out a list of popular slot games for December 2021 and January 2022, Starburst beat all its rivals, and not for the first time. That’s because its theme remains relevant throughout the year, whereas other themes experience peaks and troughs.


Source: Pexels

It Centers Around What People Want

NetEnt is a business that wants to be successful. To do that, it must appeal to a core base of consumers, and the bigger the base, the more money the developer stands to make. The key is to provide customers with what they need before they ask, or before they know themselves. After all, the roles of salespersons are rapidly declining as shoppers rely on customer-based feedback and online search engines.

Of course, businesses can’t bombard people with information or shiny features and hope to gain their trust. If anything, too much data encourages gamers to bounce because they struggle to understand what they are getting. This is where Starburst is hugely successful. With eight symbols and a single bonus round, the winning mechanics are straightforward. This is literally the case as Starburst has a low-to-medium volatility rating, which means it doesn’t pay out huge amounts, but it does pay out more frequently. The fact is that many gamers would rather take small rewards than none whatsoever.

You only have to compare Starburst to Starburst XXXtreme. The sequel was released in 2021 and has all the bells and whistles you would expect, from random multipliers of up to 450x to two additional bonus features. It’s a highly volatile slot, too. Regardless of the additions, the original continues to outperform Starburst XXXtreme.

Being timeless and giving players what they want aren’t the only features that make Starburst popular. However, they are the foundation of its popularity, so while they are still around, expect it to be the number online slot machine in the world.