A new year, a new set of ideas and resolutions for the months ahead. Whether it’s crash games or Megaways, each year is defined by the trends and features that became popular during this time. With how fast technology advances, it can be difficult to predict which trends we expect to see in 2025 in online casinos, but there are a few early indicators of which direction this year might go.
One of the advantages of online casinos is how fast they can change when it comes to new ideas. If a new genre of games becomes popular, they can add the games to the library and promote them on the homepage. This is vastly different from land-based casinos, which have to wait for machines to be manufactured, shipped, and then installed!
This means that online casinos can hop on (and hop off) trends when it suits them. You might’ve noticed this during seasonal holidays like Christmas, Halloween or Easter when online casinos are filled with similarly themed slots for a few weeks, before the homepage and featured game selection return to normal. Speaking of trends…
Changes to sweepstakes casinos
With iGaming only available in a few US states, sweepstakes casinos have become more popular than ever. If you’re wondering what a sweepstakes casino is, don’t worry—we have a full guide on sweepstakes casinos available here.
US Sweepstakes casinos have dominated the market over the past few years, but they’ve also drawn increasing attention to themselves. In the last few months, a few states have begun to crack down on them. Most recently, the courts in North Carolina ruled against several land-based sweepstakes casinos, citing that they were not different enough from real-money gambling and thus fell under the Gambling Act.
We might see more states begin to rule what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to online gaming in the US. This might change how sweepstakes players claim their prizes, or even how the Sweeps Coins system works, but we’ll have to wait and see.
New suppliers will be massive
According to Internet Vikings, an iGaming hosting provider, “You have 10 times more slot titles in Asia and Europe than you have in the US – because the labs haven't been able to certify more games than that. We need to produce a lot more slots in the US for that market to grow.”
The slots available in the biggest US casinos are good, there’s no doubt about that, but they could always be better. Some of the biggest slot providers in Europe are yet to have their games properly certified in the US because of how long the process takes. This year, we expect to see a few more games pass through the labs.
“It is a problem in the industry, that a game’s lifetime is a few months and then it goes on the back burner. Still, there are so many more games that need to be created for the American market,” continues Rickard Vikström, Internet Vikings founder. “Because, again, what many have been doing for the last five years is just taking their brick-and-mortar titles and putting them online.”
The European market only saw the levels of growth it did because of all the games available. Each studio was trying to outdo the others to stand out, which led to some truly phenomenal games emerging from the crowd. Some of these games have made their way over to the US, but not all of them.
New suppliers will bring new genres…
Fishing games, bingo, keno… All of these are available in the US, but none of them are as popular as they are overseas because they’re not as easy to access in North America. Well, with more suppliers getting licensed for the US markets, more genres will inevitably make their way into popular US online casinos too. Each studio naturally brings something new to the table - Just look at how distinct Hacksaw Gaming and Nolimit City are!
Speaking of fishing games, this style of casino is one of the hottest emerging trends in Europe, but it actually originates from Asia. It has nothing to do with fish, but is an arcade-style shoot ‘em up. It might be a little too ‘out there’ for the US markets for now, but who knows? America has a deep history with video game arcades, so it might not be as improbable as it seems.
Overall, as more games are launching in the US and the market continues to develop, we’re likely to see different genres become popular in the online casinos too.
… but also pressure land-based casinos to up their game!
If online casinos are suddenly offering new titles making their debut on US soil, then land-based casinos will have to figure out how to offer new experiences too. It’s an arduous process for retail casinos to get new games in, so they’ll have to think of something different to offer to players.
Competition is always great for the consumer!
One of the few things that land-based casinos can offer that online casinos can’t are events, like singers, bands etc. If more suppliers and genres make it through the regulation process, then one of the knock-on effects might be wider diversification from land-based casinos to attract more customers. As the US is already pretty unique in offering full resorts around most of its casinos, it’s more likely that we’re going to see more of a nuanced take on diversification.
Less seasonal-themed releases
A few years ago, it was novel to create a quick Christmas game and publish it with ease just before the holidays. But with so many suppliers offering so many titles year-round, we’re more likely to see standard game releases rather than seasonally-themed ones. For example, Pragmatic Play released Vampy Party just before Halloween, but the game holds up on its own all year round. If you want to see why this is, we have a Vampy Party review and guide available here.
That’s not to say that there’ll be no seasonal releases! But the ones which are released will likely have a bit more substance to them and might be included in wider promotions in the online casino.
