There is some speculation about hit frequency and higher payout percentage in slots games.
Some players believe a slots game’s hit frequency to be the same thing as its payout percentage.
This is not correct, and if you stop and think about it, it is immediately apparent.
Say a slots game has a payout percentage of 95%. If we go with the idea that payout percentage and hit frequency are the same thing, then that would mean the slots game in question has a hit frequency of 95%, meaning that it hits 95% of the time.
If that were the case then that would be the busiest slots game in history. If it were an online slots game the server the game was stored on would be overloaded and no one could play. And if it were a slot machine then it would have a line out the door and down the street.
Hit frequency is the likelihood of a slots game issuing a payout. Generally speaking the higher a hit frequency is the more often the slots game hits, but the payout tend to be smaller; while a slots game with a lower hit frequency is likely to issue larger payouts but less often.
Just to compare, payout percentage is the total amount of wagers taken in by the slots game in a given time period, usually a month, which is then paid out in winnings. So a slots game with a 95% payout percentage will payout 95% of the wagers it takes in. That could be in large amounts or small amounts. But the size of a payout does not matter in payout percentage—only the total amount paid out.
When think about what hit frequency is versus what payout percentage is, it is easier to see how the two are totally different. Just because a slots game has a high payout percentage does not mean it hits often. Keep that in mind.