Hybrid Crash Games Emerge as Online Casinos’ Next Big Trend

Hybrid crash games are all about the simplest rule in gambling: if you stay too long, you lose your bet. This rule applies to almost any casino game, but here, you see it directly in front of your eyes. As you perform some tasks (like crossing a street), the multiplier rises, and you can cash out at any moment. However, when the ‘crash’ happens (in these games, it’s an unfortunate event, like a bus running over the chicken that’s crossing the street), you lose your bet.

So, the idea is to cash out before the ‘bad’ happens. The main difference is that in classic crash games like AviatorX or BUSTA 1000x, you watch a multiplier climb on a chart. In hybrid crash titles, you are moving something on the screen, like a chicken, a spaceship, a character on a path, or similar, while that multiplier climbs in the background. On every step, you can make a decision: whether you want to push forward and risk for a higher multiplier, or cash out and walk away.

Let’s take Chicken Crash as an example. You start on one side of the road and move forward, lane by lane, and there’s a multiplier written on each lane. On each lane, you decide whether to cash out or move to the next one. If you decide to go to the next one, you can either pass the lane and not get hit by a car, or the crash happens, and you lose.

Crash games have been one of the fastest-growing game types in online casinos over the last two years, especially at crypto-focused and mobile-first casinos. Hybrid crash titles appear to be riding the same wave.

Numerous studies have shown that games with interactive elements tend to hold player attention longer. Early data from operators confirm that arcade games tend to hold player attention longer than standard crash games. They’re very much the same type of game, so the mechanics are very similar. The game rounds are short, which benefits operators, but the added elements keep the gameplay from feeling repetitive.

Instead of watching the multiplier rise, players make multiple small decisions during the round, which increases the round-to-round variation.

Several game providers have already noticed this higher session engagement in hybrid crash games, which suggests that these games can generate more rounds per session and ultimately be a better product for both operators and players.

Contrary to other arcade-based games that include some form of skill, like the popular fish shooters, hybrid crash games are not skill-based. Even when players control the movement like crossing the street, the crash point that ends the round is still random.

The movement only determines how long the player is exposed to the risk and how big the multiplier is at any given point, but it doesn’t determine whether the round will crash.

Hybrid crash games are generally treated the same as regular crash titles because they’re not influenced by skill, and the payout still depends on when the multiplier will stop.