Day of Dead slot
Day of Dead is a 2021 slot from Pragmatic Play that takes its look from Día de Muertos, the Mexican festival, and sets it on 5 reels and 4 rows. Its defining feature is the Expanding Wild, which fills its reel, pays, and then steps one reel across the grid on each respin until it drops off the edge. The bonus round follows the same idea and has no spin count, lasting only while those wilds stay in view.
Editorial note: this guide explains how Day of Dead works. Rules, features and payout figures are set by the studio and can differ between operators and game versions, so check the game’s information panel before you play. Slots are games of chance, and nothing here predicts results. Availability at Fortune Games can change.
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Day of Dead: key facts
| Studio | Pragmatic Play |
|---|---|
| Reels and rows | 5 reels, 4 rows |
| Top line payout | Top character symbol: 15x stake for five on a payline |
| Expanding Wild | Covers its reel, pays any wins and starts a respin; moves one reel across on each respin until it leaves the grid |
| Respins | Continue until no Expanding Wilds are in view |
| Free Game | Three Scatter symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the base game; no set number of spins, it lasts while Expanding Wilds remain on screen |
| Autoplay and turbo | Not available at sites licensed in Great Britain; UK rules require at least 2.5 seconds between the start of one game cycle and the next |
| Stakes | UK rules cap online slot stakes at £5 a spin, or £2 if you are 18 to 24 |
| RTP | Shown in the game’s information panel |
| Series | Stand-alone |
All values (Bet Levels, Maximum Wins etc.) mentioned in relation to this slot game are subject to change at any time.
How Day of Dead plays
The grid is five reels wide and four symbols deep. Pragmatic Play built the presentation around Día de Muertos, pairing bright festival colours with a fiesta soundtrack, and the reels are dressed accordingly.
Wins come along paylines, and two sorts of wild help to form them. The standard wild stands in for paying symbols. The second, the Expanding Wild, is the game’s main base-game helper and has a section of its own below. Scatter symbols have one job: three of them on the first, third and fifth reels during the base game open the Free Game. The top payout for a line of the leading character symbol is shown in the key facts table.
Expanding Wilds
An Expanding Wild fills the whole reel it lands on, pays any wins it is part of, and then triggers a respin. On that respin it moves one position across the reels, pays again if it completes wins, and triggers another, repeating the pattern until it falls off the edge of the grid. The respins carry on for as long as any Expanding Wild is still in view, so a fresh one landing while another is on the move keeps the sequence alive.
Free Game
The Free Game starts when three Scatter symbols land on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the base game. What sets it apart from most bonus rounds is that it is not counted in spins. Pragmatic Play ties its length to the Expanding Wilds instead: the round continues as long as there are Expanding Wilds on the screen and closes once none are left.
Day of Dead compared with Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds
Nolimit City explored walking wilds a year earlier in Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds, and the two games use the idea differently. In the 2020 game the walk belongs to the Genie Parade, led by a Golden Genie whose wild multiplier rises with every step to the left. Day of Dead’s Expanding Wild covers a full reel and walks in the base game as well as in the Free Game. Its grid also has four rows to Golden Genie’s three.
| Game | Released | Grid | Walking wild |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds | 2020 | 5 reels, 3 rows, 20 paylines | A Golden Genie leads the Genie Parade; its wild multiplier rises with each step left |
| Day of Dead | 2021 | 5 reels, 4 rows | Expanding Wilds cover a reel and move one reel across on each respin |
All values (Bet Levels, Maximum Wins etc.) mentioned in relation to this slot game are subject to change at any time.
Day of Dead at Fortune Games
Day of Dead is one of the slot games in our lobby (18+). The tiles above place it among other games drawn from Mexican music and celebration, including Día del Mariachi Megaways, Esqueleto Mariachi and Muertos Fortune. The UK caps in the table apply to every player. There is no autoplay or turbo mode, as at every site licensed in Great Britain. Fortune Games has an app on the App Store and Google Play.
Frequently asked questions
What happens when an Expanding Wild reaches the edge of the reels?
It falls off the grid and is gone. Up to that point it pays any wins it forms on each respin, moving one reel along each time. If no other Expanding Wild is in view once it leaves, the respins stop and normal spins resume.
Does Day of Dead have free spins?
Not in the usual counted form. Its bonus round is called the Free Game, and it does not hand out a fixed number of spins to work through. The round is opened by Scatter symbols on the first, third and fifth reels, and from then on its length depends entirely on how long Expanding Wilds keep appearing on screen.
What is Day of Dead based on?
The game takes its theme from Día de Muertos, the Mexican festival, with a fiesta soundtrack and eye-catching visual effects. When the game was announced in October 2021, Pragmatic Play’s chief business development officer described the festival as very unique and said its graphics and mechanics bring something entirely new to the studio’s portfolio.
Related guides
Checked on 5 November 2026 against Pragmatic Play’s Day of Dead game page and launch release, Nolimit City’s launch release for Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds, the SlotCatalog, VegasSlotsOnline and Casinos.com records of Day of Dead, the OLBG and Casinos.com records of Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds, and the Gambling Commission’s stake-limit guidance and remote technical standards. How we research and check our guides: our editorial policy.