Year-End Christmas Slot Special: Pragmatic Play Dusts Its Hits With Snow, Hacksaw Puts Santa in the Le Series
Four new Christmas games from Pragmatic Play and Hacksaw Gaming arrive between mid-November and early December. Alongside this year’s schedule, we look at how the two studios have made Christmas slots over the past few years and which Christmas games you can play as demos now.
Key takeaways
- This year’s Christmas releases are Big Bass Christmas Blast 1000 (November 16), Xmas Guardians Megaways and Le Gift Grabber (November 26), and Sweet Bonanza Xmas 2500 (December 3).
- Pragmatic Play has long relied on re-releasing already successful games as Christmas editions.
- Hacksaw started with new games like Xmas Drop and Snow Slingers, but has filled Christmas with the Le series for the past two years.
- Past Christmas slots from both studios are available as demos on AI Slot.
As the year draws to a close, snow starts falling on slot developers’ release schedules too. The first to announce Christmas dates this year were Pragmatic Play and Hacksaw Gaming, and the two approach Christmas games quite differently.
This year’s four Christmas releases
| Release date | Games | Providers | What is known |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.16 | Big Bass Christmas Blast 1000 | Pragmatic Play | Big Bass series, max 20,000x |
| 11.26 | Xmas Guardians Megaways | Pragmatic Play | Megaways mechanic |
| 11.26 | Le Gift Grabber | Hacksaw Gaming | 6×5 cluster, max 15,000x |
| 12.03 | Sweet Bonanza Xmas 2500 | Pragmatic Play | Christmas edition of Sweet Bonanza 2500, max 25,000x |
Beyond its name and release date, no detailed figures have been published for Xmas Guardians Megaways yet. The other three all have max wins of 15,000x or more.
Pragmatic’s formula: dust the hits with snow
Lay out Pragmatic Play’s Christmas slots by year and the common thread is obvious: most are Christmas editions of games that were already popular.
- 2019 Sweet Bonanza Xmas: the winter edition of Sweet Bonanza, max 21,175x
- 2021 Christmas Big Bass Bonanza: the Christmas edition of Big Bass Bonanza
- 2023 Sugar Rush Xmas, Big Bass Christmas Bash
- 2024 Gates of Olympus Xmas 1000, Big Bass Xmas Xtreme
- 2025 Wisdom of Athena 1000 Xmas, Big Bass Christmas Frozen Lake
The Big Bass series has had a Christmas edition every year since 2021, and Christmas Blast 1000 continues that run this year. Sweet Bonanza puts on its Christmas outfit again for the first time in seven years since 2019. Because the formula keeps the original rules and changes only the visuals and the cap, anyone who has played the original has almost nothing new to learn, and that is its strength.
Hacksaw’s approach: from new stories to the Le series
Hacksaw’s Christmas has a different texture. Xmas Drop in 2023 and Snow Slingers in 2024 were new games, not remakes. The shift came last year. In November 2025, Le Santa put Santa into the popular Le series, and this year Le Gift Grabber makes it two Le series Christmas games in a row.
As its name suggests, Le Gift Grabber is the Christmas edition in which the Le series raccoon goes after the presents. It uses Golden Squares on a 6×5 cluster pays grid, with Coins, Clovers and Santa Sacks appearing in the gold squares. Free spins split by scatter count into ‘Naughty By Night’, ‘Sticky Fingers’ and the hidden bonus ‘Christmas Cave Rave’. All of Hacksaw’s November releases are covered in our Hacksaw Gaming November preview.
The two studios’ Christmas games by the numbers
Based on AI Slot game data, here are the figures for recent Christmas games side by side.
| Games | Providers | Release | RTP | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xmas Drop | Hacksaw | 2023.11 | 96.22% | 12,500x |
| Snow Slingers | Hacksaw | 2024.11 | 94.32% | 10,000x |
| Le Santa | Hacksaw | 2025.11 | 96.14% | 20,000x |
| Gates of Olympus Xmas 1000 | Pragmatic Play | 2024.12 | 96.50% | 15,000x |
| Big Bass Xmas Xtreme | Pragmatic Play | 2024.11 | 96.07% | 10,000x |
| Wisdom of Athena 1000 Xmas | Pragmatic Play | 2025.11 | 96.00% | 10,000x |
On max win alone, Le Santa’s 20,000x last year was the highest. This year, Sweet Bonanza Xmas 2500 promises 25,000x and will top it. Some operators may use lower RTP versions, so it is worth checking the RTP on the in-game info screen.
Get into the Christmas mood with demos
This year’s new games will be added to AI Slot on their release dates. Until then, spinning last year’s Christmas slots in demo gives you an early feel for each studio’s holiday style. We picked the two games that this year’s releases build on.
More holiday games can be found in the Pragmatic Play free slots and Hacksaw Gaming free slots lists. Pragmatic Play’s full Q4 schedule is in our Pragmatic Play Q4 release calendar.
Sources: Pragmatic Play Q4 roadmap (Gaming Intelligence), Bigwinboard, SlotsLaunch, DGN Zone, AI Slot game data