Sword Art Online mouse pads for the desk

These Sword Art Online mouse pads and desk mats carry Padrift artwork inspired by Aincrad and the virtual worlds that followed it, printed across a 3 mm neoprene pad with a fabric top, a non-slip base and stitched edges. Choose from eight sizes, from an 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) pad sized for one hand to a 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm) mat with space for a keyboard, a mouse and a controller, and expect each one to be printed for you after you order.

Reki Kawahara first published Sword Art Online on his own website in 2002, and it became a light novel series in 2009, illustrated by abec. A-1 Pictures adapted it into an anime in 2012. The story begins in 2022, when ten thousand players log into a new virtual reality game through a headset called the NerveGear and discover they can't log out: the game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba, has trapped them inside, and dying in the game means dying in real life. The only way out is to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad, a floating castle.

A gamer's anime for a gamer's desk

SAO is about players. Its characters level up, trade gear, form guilds, argue about strategy and grind through boss fights, which makes it an easy match for a desk where games get played. A mat inspired by it does what any gaming surface needs to do: the fabric top gives the mouse an even glide, the base stays put during quick movements and the neoprene cushions your forearms through a long evening. The art just reminds you what the characters were fighting for.

Kirito in black, Asuna in white

The two leads come with opposite palettes. Kirito, the solo player who becomes the story's hero, wears a long black coat; Asuna, sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath and known as the Flash for her speed with a rapier, wears white and red. That contrast gives you two ways into the series. A Kirito design suits a black desk, a dark keyboard and blue or white lighting, while an Asuna design suits a white setup with red accents. A long mat with one at each end works for both, or for two people who share a desk.

Two blades along the back edge

Kirito eventually fights with two swords at once, the black Elucidator and the pale Dark Repulser, through a rare skill called Dual Blades. Swords are long, straight shapes, and on a desk mat they belong along the back edge, above the keyboard, where nothing covers them. On M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm), or L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm), a pair of crossed or parallel blades runs the width of the mat and frames the keys rather than hiding behind them.

Lisbeth's forge and warmer colors

Dark Repulser comes from Lisbeth, a blacksmith with pink hair who runs her own weapon shop in Aincrad and forges the sword from a rare ingot she and Kirito bring back from a dragon's nest. Her story gives SAO one of its few warm palettes: forge orange, glowing metal, pink and the browns of a workshop. A Lisbeth design suits a wooden desk or warm lighting, and it is a fitting pick for anyone whose desk doubles as a place to make things.

Aincrad's floors as palettes

Every floor of the castle has its own landscape, and a few of them translate directly into desk colors.

• The Town of Beginnings: gray cobblestone and a bright sky over the central plaza, for neutral gray or white desks.
• The 22nd floor: lakes, pine forest and the log cabin where Kirito and Asuna live for a while, for wooden desks and plants.
• Boss rooms: dark stone and the red glow of a huge enemy, for black setups with red lighting.
• The sky around the castle: pale blue and drifting cloud, for a light, airy desk.
• Floor-clearing battles: crowds of players in many colors, a busy scene that suits the larger sizes.

The fairy races of ALfheim

The Fairy Dance arc moves to ALfheim Online, a game where players choose from nine fairy races and fly on wings. Each race has its own color, which makes choosing a design a little like choosing a race. Kirito plays a Spriggan in black, Leafa, his cousin and adoptive sister, a green-clad Sylph, Klein a red Salamander and, in the later arcs, Asuna an Undine with blue hair, while Silica is a Cait Sith with cat ears and Lisbeth a Leprechaun. Match the race to your desk: green for plants and wood, blue for cool lighting, red for warm accents, black for a dark setup.

Sinon and the low-sensitivity arm

The Phantom Bullet arc takes the story to Gun Gale Online, a shooter set in a ruined future, where Sinon is a sniper with a huge anti-materiel rifle called the Hecate II. Of all the SAO characters, she is the one an FPS player relates to. For players who aim with a low sensitivity and sweep the whole forearm, the size of the mat matters more than the art: XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm), or larger gives the mouse room for long arcs without falling off the edge. A Sinon design with her rifle laid along the back keeps the art clear of the mouse's path, and the desert tans and steel blues of Gun Gale Online suit a gray or black setup.

Yui and Pina for the small pad

Yui, the little AI girl Kirito and Asuna take in on the 22nd floor, and Pina, the small feathered blue dragon who follows Silica everywhere, are SAO's smallest and gentlest characters. Either one works on the S size, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm), placed toward the top so your hand rests below. They also make the safest choice for a younger viewer's desk, since they come from the softer side of a story that otherwise puts its characters in real danger.

Alicization in blue and gold

The Alicization arc, adapted between 2018 and 2020, sends Kirito into the Underworld, a fantasy world inside an experimental simulation, where he befriends Eugeo, who carries the Blue Rose Sword, and meets Alice, a knight in golden armor. That arc gives SAO its most regal palette: royal blue, gold, ice-white roses and pale stone. An Alicization design suits a navy desk with brass or gold accents, a white desk with blue keycaps or a setup that wants something more formal than neon.

Ordinal Scale and the real-world screen

The 2017 film Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale swaps virtual reality for augmented reality, with a device called the Augma that projects game monsters onto the streets of Tokyo. It is the one part of the story where the game happens in an ordinary city rather than a fantasy world. A design that mixes a real skyline with floating game menus and health bars suits a desk in an everyday room, a nice reminder that the screen in front of you is a window to another world too.

Playing the SAO games

The series has its own games as well, from Hollow Fragment and Lost Song to Fatal Bullet in 2018, a third-person shooter set in Gun Gale Online, and Last Recollection in 2023. Several have been released on PC, where a large mat gives a keyboard and mouse room to work, and others are played with a controller. On XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm), a keyboard and a resting controller fit side by side, and the non-slip base keeps both from drifting during a boss fight.

SAO cards on the table

Sword Art Online has also had sets in Bushiroad's Weiss Schwarz trading card game. If you play at a desk or a table, the 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm) size is the standard trading-card playmat size, with room for your cards in front of you. These pads have no printed card zones; Padrift's zoned layouts are on its separate card game playmats.

For teens and older fans

SAO is an action series with peril, battles and a few heavier moments, and it is mostly watched by teenagers and adults. For a teen's desk, Kirito and Asuna, a floor landscape or Aincrad floating in the sky are clean, exciting choices. For an older fan who has followed the series since 2012, a design from a later arc, Alicization's blue and gold or Gun Gale Online's desert, shows they have kept watching long after the first season.

Sizes for an Aincrad desk

The sizes on offer for each design appear on its product page. These are the setups they suit.

Setup	Size	Good for
Mouse only	S, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm)	Yui, Pina or a single sword
Laptop or card games	TCG Mat, 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm)	A Weiss Schwarz game or a laptop
Compact keyboard	M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm)	Kirito's two swords along the back edge
Keyboard and mouse	XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm)	Kirito at one end, Asuna at the other
Low-sensitivity aiming	XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm)	Sinon's rifle across the back
Whole desk	4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm)	Aincrad floating above the clouds

Between those steps sit L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm), and 3XL, 19.7″ × 39.4″ (50 × 100 cm), for desks with more length than depth.

Gifts for a player

An SAO pad suits a gamer who has been watching since the first season, a friend who reads the light novels or a teenager who has just discovered the anime. Choose Kirito for a dark gaming desk, Asuna for a white one, Sinon for a shooter fan and Pina for something small and sweet. If you're unsure about the desk, XL fits a full keyboard and mouse on most gaming setups.

We print your pad after you order, which takes 1–3 business days, and then send it from Turkey; most US deliveries arrive 2–5 business days after it ships, so order roughly two weeks before a birthday.

Keeping white and red bright

Asuna's white and the pale sky around Aincrad show dirt sooner than Kirito's black. A quick pass with a damp cloth every week keeps the wrist area from going gray. For a deep clean, hand wash the pad in lukewarm water with a little gentle soap, rinse it well, roll it up in a towel to push the water out and leave it flat to dry. Never use a washing machine, a dryer or an iron on it.

A note on names

Sword Art Online, SAO, Aincrad and the names of the series' characters are used here only to describe what our designs are inspired by. Padrift is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Reki Kawahara, abec, Kadokawa, A-1 Pictures, Aniplex or Bandai Namco.