During this year’s annual monster hunt, it was a boo for some, a boo for others. Egamingmonitor’s Kevin Dale takes a look at the casino charts and the best Halloween titles of the year.
While we don’t classify it as a Halloween title, it’s fitting that Book Of Dead (Play’n GO) made it to the top of our main casino charts in October. Less frightening are the little aliens of sister product Reactoonz, whose revival was boosted by the pre-marketing of the upcoming spin-off Gargantoonz. It’s been 10 years since Energoonz, the first cluster slot, was released, they say, and so a countdown to the release of the latest sequel is quite appropriate.
Top 20 games by distribution
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Only the only newcomer to the main charts: Big Bass Halloween by Pragmatic Play, which was perhaps a little late to the market to make it to the podium. Large budgets and a well-functioning distribution channel do not always guarantee that seasonal product launches will peak on time.
Otherwise our main casino charts have been relatively static and so on with the annual freak show….
Here are our Halloween top 20, based on game distribution across 3,000 operator sites. As always, to ensure variety, we’ve limited the list to the best-performing titles per studio.
game (studio) | position |
Big Bass Halloween (Pragmatic Game) | 1 |
Bloodsuckers (NetEnt) | 2 |
Immortal Romance (Microgaming) | 3 |
Granny vs. Zombies (PearFiction Studios) | 4 |
Count Jokula (Play’n GO) | 5 |
Bloodthirst (Hacksaw Gaming) | 6 |
Happy Halloween (Red Tiger) | 7 |
The Eternal Widow (Just For The Win) | 8th |
Grim Reaper Supermatch (Nailed It Games) | 9 |
Halloween Horrors Megaways (1X2 Network) | 10 |
Halloween Fortune (Playtech) | 11 |
Blood & Shadow (Nolimit City) | 12 |
Book of Darkness (Betsoft Gaming) | 13 |
Vampire Riches Doublemax (Yggdrasil) | 14 |
Van Helsing’s Book of the Undead (Iron Dog Studio) | 15 |
Nightmare Family Megaways (Max Win Gaming) | 16 |
Esqueleto Explosivo 2 (Thunderkick) | 17 |
Calaveras Explosivas (Habanero) | 18 |
Witch function (Gong Gaming) | 19 |
Cash Connection Voodoo Magic (Greentube) | 20 |
Despite the late release, Big Bass Halloween was able to downgrade old favorites Bloodsuckers (NetEnt), Immortal Romance (Microgaming) and Count Jokula (Play’n GO). A connection between fish and horror might seem tenuous, and the big bass guy obviously thought so too. He swapped his dungarees for a dark raincoat and brandished a fishing hook like a not-so-grim Grim Reaper. He didn’t seem at home in costumes, but he was still a “big bass.” [insert pretty much any word you like]“Nevertheless, it continues to attract them.
In the meantime it was nice to see a few tracks from artists like Habanero, Thunderkick and Platipus themed around the Day of the Dead festival and of course some Voodoo Magic from Greentube.
Like last year, we’re revealing our best new Halloween games below – and half of them also made the general Halloween charts above. There are many classic motifs throughout and there are only small differences in how serious or lighthearted the approach to the subject is. The Exorcist vs. Casper The Friendly Ghost competition pits Nolimit City, Hacksaw Gaming and Print Studios against companies like Red Rake Gaming, Pearfiction Studios and 1X2 Network. Or perhaps there is no competition at all because they appeal to different tastes – those who like to miss out and those who are afraid of their own shadow.
Red Rake Gaming and Bgaming have both managed to bring all the ghosts under one roof – mummies, zombies, vampires and Frankenstein, but the scariest of all is often the pan-wielding ‘Nana’ as depicted in ‘Granny vs. Zombies’ is.
Game (Studio) released in 2023 | position |
Big Bass Halloween (Pragmatic Game) | 1 |
Granny vs. Zombies (PearFiction Studios) | 2 |
Bloodthirst (Hacksaw Gaming) | 3 |
Pandora’s Box of Evil (Play’n GO) | 4 |
The Eternal Widow (Just For The Win) | 5 |
Scary Carnival (Red Tiger) | 6 |
Grim Reaper Supermatch (Nailed It Games) | 7 |
Halloween Horrors Megaways (1X2 Network) | 8th |
Blood & Shadow (Nolimit City) | 9 |
Vampire Riches Doublemax (Yggdrasil) | 10 |
Nightmare Family Megaways (Max Win Gaming) | 12 |
Devil Wilds (Playtech) | 13 |
Immortal Romance Roulette (Switch Studios) | 14 |
Vampire Odyssey (Synot Games) | 15 |
Nightmares vs Gigablox (ReelPlay) | 16 |
Halloween wins (Red Rake Gaming) | 17 |
Immortal Ways Diamonds (RubyPlay) | 18 |
Darkness (Print Studios) | 19 |
Fury Of Hyde Megaways (Jelly) | 20 |
With another dozen spooky releases in 2023, Spinomenal once again tops the list of horror factories, while the likes of Inbet Games, Pragmatic Play, Relax Gaming and Red Tiger also reaped a terrific harvest. As far as Nolimit City is concerned, Halloween is more of a philosophy than a season. Many more dark games from this studio that also have a subtle malice in their titles – The Crypt, Rotten, Disturbed, DJ Psycho and Kiss My Chainsaw were just a handful that came out this year.
Biggest studio deal makers
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With ambitions to expand their reach, 7777gaming and Gaming Corps continue to top our studio dealmaker list, while aggregator Everymatrix manages to onboard three more studios this month, extending its lead as the leading games aggregator in terms of to further expand the portfolio size.
Largest Aggregator Dealmakers
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The Christmas charts are just around the corner, but in the meantime be sure to keep an eye out for our third quarter review, out any day. It’s packed with tons of data on studio and game performance, games per studio and per operator, and much more.
*Please note that these are live charts and are updated every month. Therefore, please ensure that the month of October 2023, which corresponds to the analysis, is selected in the drop-down lists
**The interactive games table above excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 2,500 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, sub-site positions, or to filter game performance by game theme, game feature, market or operator, please contact our partner Egamingmonitor.com. Egamingmonitor covers 54,000 games, 1,500 providers and over 3,000 operators.
***Deals per month data was collected from April 2020 and the rolling chart reflects current dealmaking performance, i.e. how many deals were signed in the last six months. Please note that we only compile deals that have been reported to us either a) on company websites, or b) in the gaming press, or c) by studios and aggregators. Deals between studios and aggregators (and aggregators and operators) of all time are available via Egamingmonitor.com.