Mahjong Ways 2 by the numbers: 0.46% free spins, the ×1→×5 cascade ladder and what 1,708x means in pesos

Author — jlbet

Published — 2026-10-15 UTC

Short answer — PG SOFT’s own game information sheet for Mahjong Ways 2 lists an overall RTP of 96.95%, an overall hit rate of 29.90% and a Free Spins hit rate of 0.46%. That last figure works out to one trigger per 217 spins on average, yet after 217 spins about 37% of sessions would still be waiting for their first trigger. Wins inside one paid spin climb a fixed multiplier ladder of ×1, ×2, ×3 and then ×5 for every later cascade, and Free Spins use ×2, ×4, ×6 and ×10. The sheet also separates two “maximum” figures that are easy to confuse: an advertised maximum of 100,000x, and a highest win of 1,708x in PG SOFT’s own simulation of one billion spins.

This guide reads those official numbers carefully rather than repeating them. Where a figure comes straight from PG SOFT it is linked next to the claim; where jlbet has done the arithmetic (spins per trigger, the share of RTP paid by the feature, the paytable converted to multiples of your bet, the peso examples) it is labelled as our calculation. Peso bets are hypothetical examples, not a statement of any operator’s limits. Sources were checked on 15 October 2026.

Where each number comes from

Almost everything below is taken from the Mahjong Ways 2 game information sheet (PDF, PG SOFT, “Latest Update 08/07/2025”). PG SOFT’s website returned HTTP 403 to our server, so the sheet was read from the Internet Archive’s copy of the file at its original pgsoft.com address. The RTP and the advertised maximum also appear on PG SOFT’s Mahjong Ways 2 game page (archived June 2026), which shows “96.95%” and “x100000”.

Two checks show the sheet is internally consistent. First, 4 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 4 = 2,000, which is exactly what a five-reel, four-row grid with one extra row on the three middle reels produces. Second, 20 × bet size × bet level gives totals from 0.20 (20 × 0.01 × 1) to 50 (20 × 0.25 × 10), matching the default EUR 0.20 minimum and EUR 50 maximum. The thirty size/level combinations collapse into 26 distinct bet amounts because some overlap (for example 20 × 0.05 × 1 and 20 × 0.01 × 5 are both 1.00). Both checks are our calculation.

Free Spins at 0.46%: how many spins is that?

The sheet’s rule is simple: three Scatter symbols anywhere award 10 free spins, each additional Scatter adds 2 more, and free spins can be retriggered. A Free Spins hit rate of 0.46% means 100 ÷ 0.46 ≈ 217.4 paid spins per trigger on average (our calculation). An average is not a schedule. Treating each spin as independent, the chance of at least one trigger in n spins is 1 − (1 − 0.0046)ⁿ:

The row worth remembering is 217 spins: the “average” spin count still leaves more than a third of players without a trigger. At a hypothetical ₱20 per spin, reaching that point means ₱4,340 staked. Nothing in the official data suggests a trigger becomes “due” after a long dry spell; the 0.46% applies to every paid spin.

What one trigger is worth on average

The sheet splits RTP between the main game (70.39%) and the Free Spins feature (26.56%). Dividing the feature’s share by its hit rate gives the average value of one trigger: 26.56 ÷ 0.46 ≈ 57.7 times the bet (our calculation). At ₱20 per spin that is about ₱1,155 per trigger on average. The feature carries 26.56 ÷ 96.95 ≈ 27.4% of everything the game pays back. Treat the 57.7x as a mean, not a typical result: a few very large Free Spins rounds pull the average up, so most triggers pay less than this figure. PG SOFT does not publish the distribution of Free Spins results.

The cascade multiplier ladder, with a peso example

According to the sheet, wins in a paid spin are multiplied by the value shown above the reels, starting at ×1. A win in the first round raises the second round to ×2, a win in the second raises the third to ×3, and a win in the third raises the fourth round and every later round to ×5. During Free Spins the four steps become ×2, ×4, ×6 and ×10. After each payout the winning symbols explode and new symbols cascade down, and the chain continues until a round produces no win.

The example below is invented to show the arithmetic; it is not a real spin. Bet: ₱20 per spin. Per-way values come from the official paytable divided by the base bet of 20 (see the next section).

The lesson in the arithmetic: the same ₱68 of raw wins pays ₱172 or ₱344 depending only on which cascade they land in. The ladder rewards long chains, and every chain starts at ×1 again on the next spin. The first-round win of ₱6 is less than the ₱20 stake, which is common: a “win” on screen is not the same as a profitable spin.

Gold symbols that become Wilds

Some symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 can appear gold-plated. Per the sheet, any gold symbol that is part of a win is transformed into a Wild after the next cascade, and the Wild then substitutes for everything except the Scatter. During Free Spins, every symbol on reel 3 (except Wild and Scatter) appears in gold. That is the mechanical reason the feature carries more than a quarter of the RTP: gold symbols turning into Wilds keep chains alive, and longer chains reach the ×6 and ×10 steps.

The paytable as multiples of your bet

The sheet’s paytable is an image, so the values below were read from it and checked at high resolution. PG SOFT’s own example on the same page (a symbol paying 10 for three of a kind on 6 ways totals 10 × 6 = 60) confirms that each value is paid per winning way. Dividing by the base bet of 20 converts the values into multiples of the total bet — that conversion is ours.

Three of the lowest symbols on one way pays 0.05x — one peso on a ₱20 bet. Even five green 發 on a single way, the best regular line, returns 2.5x before multipliers. Big results therefore come from many ways stacking (2 × 3 × 2 ways of the same symbol is already 12 ways) and from the ladder, not from any one symbol. Dividing the main game’s RTP by its hit rate gives an average main-game win of about 70.39 ÷ 29.44 ≈ 2.39x per winning spin (our calculation), again pulled up by rare long chains.

Hit rate 29.90%: how often nothing happens

A 29.90% overall hit rate means roughly 3 winning spins in 10. Assuming independent spins, the chance of a run with no win at all is 0.701ⁿ: about 16.9% for 5 spins in a row, 2.9% for 10 and 0.5% for 15 (our calculation). Because many wins are smaller than the stake, a run of net losses is much more common than a run of zero wins, but the sheet does not publish win-size buckets for the main game, so that figure cannot be calculated from official data.

The sheet does publish how often larger wins appear. Big Win (x20–x35) is 1 in 294, Mega Win (x35–x50) 1 in 1,201 and Super Mega Win (x50 and above) 1 in 2,122 spins. Combined, a win of 20x or more happens about once every 212.5 spins (our calculation, adding the three disjoint bands). The chance of seeing at least one 50x-or-better win is about 4.6% in 100 spins, 21.0% in 500 and 37.6% in 1,000.

100,000x versus 1,708x: two different “maximums”

The game page and the sheet both advertise a maximum win of 100,000x. The sheet labels it “Advertised Value”. On the same page PG SOFT reports a “Max Exposure (Simulated in 1 Billion Spins)” of 1,708x. Read together, the 100,000x is the theoretical ceiling of the rules, while 1,708x is the largest win that actually occurred when the game was simulated one billion times. In other words, a win near 1,708x was roughly a one-in-a-billion-spins event in PG SOFT’s own test, and nothing close to 100,000x occurred in it. At ₱20 per spin, 1,708x would be ₱34,160 — useful as a sense of scale, not as a target.

What 96.95% costs per ₱10,000 staked

RTP is a long-run average, so the expected cost of play is staked amount × (1 − RTP). At 96.95%, every ₱10,000 staked has a theoretical cost of ₱305; 1,000 spins at ₱20 (₱20,000 staked) has a theoretical cost of ₱610 (our calculation). Individual sessions swing far above and below these numbers. The sheet lists a single RTP of 96.95%; if the information screen on a platform shows a lower figure, the cost per ₱10,000 rises accordingly — at 95%, for example, it would be ₱500. Check the RTP shown in the game’s own information screen where you play.

Confirmed, calculated, not verified

• Confirmed by PG SOFT — layout and 2,000 ways, RTP 96.95% with the 70.39/26.56 split, hit rates 29.90% / 29.44% / 0.46%, medium volatility, Big/Mega/Super Mega Win frequencies, bet sizes and levels, EUR 0.20–50 default bets, 1,708x simulated max exposure, 100,000x advertised maximum, Free Spins rules (10 spins + 2 per extra Scatter, retriggers), ×1/×2/×3/×5 and ×2/×4/×6/×10 ladders, gold-symbol transformation, paytable values.
• jlbet calculation — 217.4 spins per trigger and the cumulative trigger table, 57.7x average trigger value, 27.4% feature share, 2.39x average main-game win, paytable ÷ 20, the 26 distinct bet amounts, no-win streak odds, combined 20x+ frequency, peso examples and the cost per ₱10,000.
• Not verified — the RTP version used by any specific platform, peso bet limits at any operator, the distribution of Free Spins results, how often retriggers occur, and the release date (PG SOFT’s launch announcement was not reachable from our server).

Before you play

Each spin is random, and none of the probabilities or averages above can predict the next one. Decide your budget and a stopping point before you start, do not raise your bet to “chase” Free Spins after a long dry run, and remember that the ladder resets on every new spin. Online gambling in the Philippines is for adults aged 21 and over; follow the rules that apply where you live.

Sources (checked 15 October 2026): PG SOFT — Mahjong Ways 2 game information sheet (PDF, archived copy of the pgsoft.com file); Mahjong Ways 2 game page (archived 16 June 2026). Probability tables, conversions and peso examples are jlbet’s own calculations from those figures.