Fruity Slots Awards

About the Fruity Slots Awards

The Fruity Slots Award are designed to celebrate the very best of the best in an industry that continues to raise the bar, having conducted these award votes since 2020.

Rather than make the call ourselves, we give the most important people in the business a voice – the players – so they can have their say and give credit where it’s due.

It’s a great way to get our community involved and hear what our viewers are loving this year, which in turn, shapes what we play on stream and film for our IRL video content.

The Fruity Slots Award Categories

Slot of the Year

The slot that had everyone talking. Whether it was the mechanics, the theme, the volatility, the max win potential, or just the wow factor, this is the title that defined the year and left everything else behind.

Studio of the Year

Behind every great slot is a team of developers who sweated the details so you didn’t have to. This award recognises the studio that consistently delivered the goods over the course of the year

Slot Sequel of the Year

This category celebrates the sequels that didn’t just coast on the original’s reputation, but actually brought something new to the table and earned their place in their own right. They evolve the OG rather than just copy and paste.

Most Innovative Studio

This category recognises the developer that pushed the boundaries the furthest and dared to try something different, whether that’s a never-before-seen mechanic or a studio that refused to make another reskinned clone.

Best Newcomer

Every year, a handful of new studios burst onto the scene and immediately make their presence known. This award is for the best of that bunch, arriving with a fully-formed identity, a clear point of difference, and the slots to back it up.

How the Fruity Slots Awards Work

The Fruity Slots Awards run annually, with nominations, voting, and winners all decided by the community in the month of December.

Here’s how the process works:

• Nominations – We open the floor to nominations across all five categories. You can have your say in our community forum or Discord channel.
• Voting – Once nominations close, the shortlist goes to a public vote in December. One vote per person, per category via Google Forms.
• Winners – The results are announced right here, with winners added to the Hall of Fame for that year. We’ll also be sharing the results across our YouTube, Kick, and social channels.

Previous Fruity Slots Award Winners

All previous Fruity Slots Rewards results live right here on this page, from 2020 up and until now.

As each annual edition wraps up, the winners are added below, building a year-by-year record of the slots and studios that the Fruity Slots community has widely recognised as the best in the business.

2025 Award Winners

With hundreds of votes cast in 2025, we finally arrived at our winners for our five main awards categories: Slot of the Year, Studio of the Year, Slot Sequel of the Year, Most Innovative Studio, and Best Newcomer.

This year’s competition was decided for the players, by players, whittling down 34 games studios down to just two winners.

🥇 Slot of the Year 2025 – Le Cowboy

Le Cowboy is a Wild West continuation of Hacksaw’s beloved ‘Le’ series, as we see everyone’s favourite cunning racoon brands himself as the new sheriff in town, decked out in a cowboy hat and revolver to boot. With three themed bonus rounds like High Noon Saloon and Trail of Trickey, this appears to be Smokey’s most daring venture yet, winning Slot of the Year with 10.20% of the vote.

➡️ Read the full Le Cowboy review here

🥇Studio of the Year 2025 – Nolimit City

Founded in 2023 and going from strength to strength, 2025’s Studio of the Year was none other than Nolimit City, the Sweden-based outfit. Each and every one of their releases raises the limits of what’s possible in this industry – often attempting to remove them altogether. Their standout titles from 2025 include the likes of Seamen, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Gator Hunters, and Fire in the Hole 3.

➡️ Find out more about Nolimit City here

🥇 Slot Sequel of the Year 2025 – Holy Hand Grenade 2

Sequels are hard to master but Print Studios’ oxymornic Holy Hand Grenade 2 is one such title that executes it to perfection, scoring 35.40% of the votes in this category. The pastor who saw the light is back, blaspheming into the hearts of players once again. It boasts the flagship SuperSpinners, the explosive Holy Hand Grenade Feature, and three free spins, offering salvation through detonation.

➡️ Read the full Holy Hand Grenade 2 review here

🥇 Most Innovative Studio 2025 – Print Studios

That last entry leads perfectly into the Most Innovative Studio of the Year for 2025, and that honour goes to none other that Print Studios, who won with 20.80% of the votes. As the industry fills with more copy-and-paste slots and reclones, Print Studios stands out from the crowd with their against-the-grain slots and creative mechanics like SuperSpinners.

➡️ Find out more about Print Studios here

🥇 Best Newcomer 2025 – Shady Lady

Four studios were shortlisted (Shady Lady, Kitsune Studios, Sneaky Slots, and Wicked Games), but we tip our hat to Shady Lady, who won by a landslide with 80.20% of the overall votes, thanks to games like Swoll, Sew, Black Friday, and Office Party. With their “dare to be different attitude,” innovative mechanics, and on-the-edge themes, Shady Lady is a studio that will go far in this industry.

➡️ Find out more about Shady Lady here

2024 Award Winners

We missed last year’s awards so to make up for it, we offered more award categories in 2024 than just Slot and Provider of the Year, including Sequel of the Year and Most Innovative Studio.

Hundreds of you voted, and it ended up being our most varied yet to date, with a different provider/slot in each category.

🥇 Slot of the Year 2024 – Ancient Tumble

Ancient Tumble is a game that landed well with our reviewers, scoring 8.4/10, and it seems it impressed our audience too, earning 14% of the votes in the Slot of the Year category. This Relax Gaming title mixes a rugged adventurer with an exploration theme, featuring Colossal Symbols, Tumbles, and Stone Blockers with five distinct free spins modes as a bold new addition to their popular Tumble series.

➡️ Read the full Ancient Tumble review here

🥇 Studio of the Year 2024 – Pragmatic Play

It should comes as no surprise that Pragmatic Play won our prestigious Studio of the Year award in 2024, coming in hot with 16% of the total votes. Their slots regularly top of the charts in casino lobbies around the world, and they maintain a strong presence across the board thanks to their consistent release schedule, offering a varied portfolio of games designed to appeal to all types of players.

➡️ Find out more about Pragmatic Play here

🥇 Most Innovative Studio 2024 – Hacksaw Gaming

Hacksaw Gaming is one of the big three in the iGaming world when it comes to studios, and their consistently-polished titles are likely the reason why they won the Most Innovative Studio accolade in 2024 with 17% of votes. Their exact style is hard to pin down, and their back catalogue of releases showcase a varied palette across different volatilities and themes, making them many-a-players’ top provider.

➡️ Find out more about Hacksaw Gaming here

🥇Slot Sequel of the Year 2024 – San Quentin 2 Death Row

Crowned as the Fruity Slots Slot Sequel of the Year with 19% of the total votes, San Quentin 2 surpassed all expectations as the sequel to the 2021 release, San Quentin. It quickly became a fan favourite with its highly volatile swings, layered mechanics, and gritty atmosphere – not to mention the ‘don’t drop the soap jokes.’ It builds on the legacy of its predecessor, while still being a mega slot in its own right.

➡️ Read the full San Quentin 2 review here

2022 Award Winners

For our 2022 Fruity Slots Awards, we dialled things back to basics with just two main categories: Slot of the Year and Studio of the Year.

It was an incredible year for slots but these are the two names stood out to our community the most.

🥇Slot of the Year 2022 – Money Train 3

It was hard to see how Relax Gaming’s Money Train 3 could possibly top the previous games in the series, but it did, scoring an impressive 9.8/10 with our review team. It landed well with our audience, too, earning the Slot of the Year for 2022. Its eye-watering win potential (100,000x) and established franchise, mixed with new ideas and tried-and-tested mechanic solidify its place in the Hall of Fame.

➡️ Read the full Money Train 3 review here

🥇Studio of the Year 2022 – ELK Studios

Largely known for their beloved slot franchises and innovative mechanics like the CollectR, ELK Studios is the provider that took home the crown for Studio of the Year 2022. It’s well-deserved, as popular, award-winning games like Tropicool, Wild Toro, and Nitropolis all pushed the Swedish-based outfit into the spotlight with their character-driven narratives.


➡️ Find out more about ELK Studios here

2021 Award Winners

This year was a clean sweep for Nolimit City, who basically scored a hat trick in all of our 2021 award categories, scoring hit after hit with their releases this year.

It’s clear NLC have made a home for themselves in the uncomfortable, unafraid to touch themes and mechanics that other studios would never dare to. Their unpredictability means we wait with bated breath to see what they do next.

🥇 Slot of the Year 2021 – xWays Hoarder xSplit

Continuing their pattern of xMechanics and such-titled slots, we have xWays Hoarder xSplit, themed around a bunker during nuclear winter. In true NLC fashion, there’s a hint of satire hidden in the reels, and includes their flagship xMechanics like xSplit Wilds and xWays, with Bunker Raid Spins to carry the action in the bonus round. This game also won Best Production award for this year.

➡️ Read the full xWays Hoarder xSplit review here

🥇 Studio of the Year 2021 – Nolimit City

2021 was clearly the breakout year for Nolimit City, marked by hit after hit with successful titles such as Das xBoot, San Quentin, Fire in the Hole, and xWays Hoarder xSplit – many of which are still some of their most-played slots five years later. This year, NLC went full steam ahead, adding to their growing roster of xMechanics and throwing out the rulebook with their pattern of weird and wonderful releases.

➡️ Find out more about Nolimit City here

🥇 Most Innovative Slot 2021 – Mental

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but Nolimit City negate that entirely with Mental, which won the Most Innovative Slot accolade for 2021. Mental shows that NLC aren’t afraid to push the envelope, with gritty themes, high max wins, and extreme volatility that makes each spin entirely unpredictable, and dare we say, mental.

➡️ Read the full Mental review here

2020 Award Winners

2020: the year that started it all. We launched our annual awards, and what a perfect year to start off with.

We saw so much innovation in 2020, with a clear fondness in our community for games that pushed the boundaries, having refused to conform to the normal tried and true style of play, paving the way for new ideas and fresh mechanics.

🥇 Slot of the Year 2020 – The Dog House Megaways

Megaways slots were dominating the reels and casino lobbies in 2020, but one stood out from the rest… The Dog House Megaways from Pragmatic Play. It combines Big Time Gaming’s dynamic Megaways system with the four perfect pooches from Pragmatic’s The Dog House series. This titles offers up to 117,649 ways to win with two different free spins modes, including sticky and raining wilds.

➡️ Read the full The Dog House Megaways review here

🥇 Studio of the Year 2020 – Big Time Gaming

Megaways slots stood out amongst this year, and that boosted the masterminds behind the dynamically-changing mechanic to the top of our leaderboards. To that honour, Big Time Gaming won our Studio of the Year award in 2020. This year also saw the introduction of the BTG’s Megacluster series, where wins form through clusters of identical symbols  connecting orthogonally (up, down, left, right).

➡️ Find out more about Big Time Gaming here

🥇 Most Innovative Slot 2020 – Book of Shadows

You might wonder how a ‘Book of’ slot won the Most Innovative Slot of the year, but Nolimit City’s Book of Shadows brought something refreshingly new to the table. While most Book slots have the usual expanding symbol, Book of Shadows introduces something new to the table with Shadow Rows, increasing the number of rows and win lines, and the Gamble feature for those who want to double or nothing.

➡️ Read the full Book of Shadows review here

Fruity Slots Awards FAQs

Why Trust the Fruity Slots Awards?

Simply because we’re not selling anything – we don’t take payments from studios to appear on our lists, nor do we accept sponsorships in exchange for nominations.

Our only agenda is giving the iGaming community a genuinely fair, genuinely independent awards process – one where the best slots and studios win because they actually earned it.

We’ve been reviewing, testing, and playing slots for years, and we’ve built a community of players who know their stuff.

The Fruity Slots Awards exist to give the power to the people and give the community a voice. And with that, we make sure that the people building the games we love know exactly what we think of them.

The Fruity Slots Rewards are independently run and entirely community-voted. All nominations and votes are submitted by members of the Fruity Slots community. Please gamble responsibly.