Popcorn: how it plays, odds and payouts

Popcorn is a cash-out game where you are cooking a bag of popcorn. Kernels burst one after another; each burst multiplies the bag by its pop size, and any burst can be the one that burns. You choose when to pull the bag by tapping Cash out (locking in the multiplier you hold).

How a round works

1. Set your bet and start. The first burst comes about half a second in.
2. A burst happens every 0.7 seconds, up to 40 bursts in all.
3. Each burst multiplies the bag by its pop size: a small pop, a big pop, a butter burst or the golden kernel. You see the size just after it pops.
4. Tap Cash out at any time after the first burst to take the bag as it stands.
5. A burnt burst ends the round and the bet is lost. Everything is fixed on our servers when the round starts. If the bag survives all 40 bursts it pays out by itself after about 28 seconds.

What a burst can be

These are the chances for one burst. The very first burst is a little riskier than the rest because it carries the 3% house edge.

Worked example

Take a bag that has been through four bursts. Suppose they were small, small, big and butter: 1.03 x 1.03 x 1.08 x 1.25 gives 1.43x. Add a golden kernel on the next burst and the bag jumps tenfold to about 14.3x. A bet of 100 coins pulled there returns about 1,430 coins.

Why is 8.65% the burn chance? The average burst multiplies the bag by 1.095 (0.75 x 1.03 + 0.2 x 1.08 + 0.045 x 1.25 + 0.005 x 10). The game sets the burn chance to 1 minus 1 / 1.095, which is 8.65%, so that every burst is a fair bet. The golden kernel looks tiny at 0.5% of the pop sizes, but it contributes about half of the average growth.

Max win and limits

A bag of 40 bursts can compound to the game-wide limit of 50,000x the bet and 250,000,000 coins per round; the engine stops the round there. That needs several golden kernels in a row and is vanishingly rare. Volatility is very high for the biggest outcomes, but about 6 rounds in 10 end within the first ten bursts.

What matters and what does not

• Pulling the bag early: your most useful tool for keeping gains. After a golden kernel the bag is worth ten times what it was, and the next burst risks all of it for a modest 9.5% average gain.
• Watching for a rhythm in the pops: there is none. Every burst is drawn independently of the earlier ones.
• Bet size: changes the coin amounts, not the odds.

Every plan has the same 97% average return. To see the logic behind this for all multiplier games, read how crash-style games work.

How it differs from other cash-out games

Snake shows its special apples before you reach them; Popcorn keeps each burst hidden until it pops, so you decide without knowing the next size. Its bursts also arrive at a fixed pace, unlike the accelerating rolls of Snowball. For the original curve game, see Crash.

Play with limits

Coins are virtual, have no cash value and cannot be withdrawn or exchanged for prizes. For adults (18+), for entertainment. Set a time limit before playing; see playing safely in Cashout Arcade.