Trapped inside the game

Ten thousand players log into a brand-new virtual reality game, only to discover they can't log out, and that dying in the game means dying in real life. To escape, someone has to clear all one hundred floors of a giant floating castle. Sword Art Online became one of the most popular anime of the 2010s and helped define the stories about being trapped in games that followed. A Sword Art Online-inspired rug brings that gamer fantasy into a room: a castle floating in the clouds, crossed black and white swords, a glowing game HUD, a sleek VR headset or a virtual sunset. Every design is printed into soft velvet and goes in the washing machine.

Sword Art Online-inspired designs

Design	The look	Best in
Floating castle	A tiered castle in the clouds	Bedrooms, gaming setups
Twin swords	Crossed black and white blades	Gaming setups, teen rooms
Game HUD	Glowing health bars and menus	Gaming desks, dorms
VR headset	A sleek headset with circuit lines	Gaming rooms, tech offices
Virtual sunset	A fantasy landscape at golden hour	Bedrooms, living rooms
Pixel glitch	Borders breaking into glitching pixels	Gaming setups, studios

The floating castle suits a bedroom, while the game HUD design looks sharp under a gaming desk.

The series

Sword Art Online began as a web novel by Reki Kawahara and was published as a light novel series from 2009, illustrated by the artist abec. In 2012, the studio A-1 Pictures adapted it into an anime that became a worldwide hit. Set in the near future, it follows Kirito, a skilled solo player, and Asuna, a brilliant swordswoman, as they fight their way up a floating castle of one hundred floors inside a deadly virtual reality game. Later arcs take them into other virtual worlds, and the franchise has expanded into films, spin-offs and many video games.

The floating castle

The game's world is a vast castle floating in the sky, its stacked floors each holding forests, towns and dungeons. A floating castle rug, tiered stone levels drifting among clouds at sunrise, is a dreamy fantasy design for a bedroom or a gaming setup, and a perfect piece for anyone who loves fantasy RPGs and long quests. For tabletop fantasy, see our Dungeons and Dragons rugs.

Twin swords

The hero is famous for fighting with two swords at once, one black and one pale. A rug of crossed black and white swords on a deep background is a striking design for a gaming setup or a teen's room. Under a gaming chair, choose Standard, 5 mm crushed velvet on a non-slip faux leather back, about 500 g/m², which stays put and lets the wheels roll. For more, see our gaming rugs.

A game HUD

Health bars, level numbers and floating menus glowing in the corner of the screen are part of every game. A HUD-style rug, with glowing health and experience bars, a minimap and your own player name, is a fun, personal design for a gaming desk or a dorm. Our custom rugs can add your name and level, in any size up to 5′11″ × 10′.

The VR headset

In the story, a sleek helmet lets players dive fully into the game with all five senses. Virtual reality headsets are real today, though not quite so immersive. A rug of a sleek headset with glowing circuit lines is a cool design for a gaming room or a tech lover's office. Our office and studio rugs page has more setups.

A virtual sunset

Some of the series' most beautiful moments are quiet ones: a meadow, a lake or a hilltop at golden hour inside the game world. A fantasy landscape at sunset is a calm, lovely design for a bedroom or a living room, beautiful even to someone who has never picked up a controller.

Glitching pixels

A rug whose border breaks into glitching, scattered pixels, as if the world were made of code, is a clever design for a gaming setup or a programmer's studio. It pairs perfectly with RGB lighting and a mechanical keyboard.

Real virtual reality

When the story was written, full-dive VR was pure science fiction. Today, consumer VR headsets let people explore virtual worlds, play games and exercise, and fans often say the series made them dream about where the technology could go. Thankfully, in real life the logout button still works perfectly.

A genre it helped popularize

Stories about people trapped inside games existed before, but the series' success helped spark a wave of anime and light novels set in game-like worlds, with stats, levels and quests. Many fans of that genre trace their love for it back here.

Friends and guilds

Players in the game team up in guilds and parties to survive, and lasting friendships form along the way. For siblings or roommates who game together, a pair of rugs, one with a black sword and one with a white sword, or a custom guild banner rug with your team name, is a fun nod to playing together.

Streaming setups

For streamers and content creators, a HUD or glitch rug in front of the camera makes a colorful, on-theme backdrop. Choose Standard so it stays flat and put under a moving chair.

Gaming setups

For an RPG fan, a floating castle, twin swords or HUD rug is the centerpiece of a gaming setup. A 3.3×5 or 4×6 ft rug suits most desks. Pair it with LED strips, a headset stand, a comfortable chair and a shelf of figures and game boxes.

Teen rooms and dorms

A twin-swords or castle rug brings fantasy adventure to a teen's room or a dorm. Choose Standard on hard floors. For a softer bedroom rug, choose Premium, 7 mm plush velvet on a bamboo and cotton back, about 700 g/m². Our bedroom rugs page has more layouts.

For older kids and teens

The series has some violence and mature moments, so it suits older kids, teens and adults. The castle, the sunset and the HUD are the most widely appealing designs.

Hallways

A long hallway can become a dungeon corridor. A custom runner up to 10 ft long with stone floor tiles and a glowing door at the far end turns every walk to bed into a climb to the next floor. Choose Standard, which stays put as people walk by.

Round rugs

A round rug with a glowing teleport circle, a minimap or a floating castle seen from above is a fun shape for a gaming corner. Our round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across.

Entryways

Just inside the front door, a small sword or HUD rug is a fun, adventurous welcome for fellow gamers and guests. Keep it indoors, out of the weather, and choose Standard for its grip on tile and wood.

Pairing with furniture

These rugs suit tech-forward rooms: a gaming chair, a desk with monitors, blue and purple LED lights and a few fantasy prints. For a calmer bedroom, pair a sunset rug with soft linen, warm lamps and a few leafy plants.

Colors

Sword Art Online-inspired designs look best in black and silver for the swords, sky blue and gold for the floating castle, glowing cyan for HUDs and warm sunset oranges for landscapes.

Other anime

For more gaming and fantasy anime, see our Overlord, Frieren and Hunter x Hunter rugs, and all our anime and manga rugs.

Gifts

A Sword Art Online-inspired rug makes a great gift for an anime fan or an RPG gamer. A custom HUD with their player name is the most personal; the floating castle is the most beautiful and dreamy.

Your own design

Want a HUD with your gamer tag, crossed swords in your favorite colors or a floating castle with your own guild name? Our custom rugs can print it in any size up to 5′11″ × 10′, or cut it to shape with our shaped rugs. Please only send artwork you're allowed to use; official character art and logos belong to their owners. Custom rugs are made just for you and can't be returned.

Sizes, shipping and returns

Rectangles come in 2×3, 2.6×3.9, 3.3×5, 4×6 and 5×7 ft. Round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across, and shaped rugs from 2.6×2.6 up to 5.2×5.9 ft (80×80 to 160×180 cm). Custom sizes go up to 5′11″ × 10′, including long runners. Every rug is printed to order in 1–3 business days and ships from Turkey; US delivery usually takes 2–5 business days after that. Unused rugs can be returned within 30 days on US orders; custom rugs can't be returned.

Care

Machine wash on a gentle, cold cycle and let it air dry flat. Vacuum on a low setting between washes, and blot spills with cold water right away. The design is printed into the fibers, so the colors stay at full health and bright, wash after wash.

Beyond Aincrad

After escaping the floating castle, the story moves through new games, each with its own look. In Fairy Dance, players fly through ALfheim Online as fairies of different races, with glowing wings and bright, magical cities. Phantom Bullet takes Kirito to Gun Gale Online, a dusty, post-apocalyptic shooter, where he meets Sinon, a sniper with a huge rifle and a painful past. Mother's Rosario follows Asuna and Yuuki, a brilliant young swordswoman, in one of the series' most moving stories.

Alicization goes further still, into the Underworld, a vast simulated world with its own history, where Kirito spends years and meets Eugeo beneath the enormous Gigas Cedar tree. The films added Ordinal Scale, with its augmented-reality game, and the Progressive films, which retell Aincrad floor by floor.

Each arc inspires a different rug. A pair of shimmering fairy wings in violet and green captures ALfheim for a teen's room. A long sniper rifle silhouetted against a desert sunset suits Sinon fans in a gaming setup. A towering black tree in a meadow, with a tiny swordsman at its base, is a calm, epic design from Alicization, and a floating castle in the clouds remains the classic choice for any fan of the first arc.

For fans who have followed the series through its many games, a rug that combines the castle, a pair of wings and a rifle tells the whole journey, from the first trapped players to the worlds that came after.

For fans who play VR games themselves, an SAO-inspired rug also helps mark the play space: a round design or a clear rectangle in the middle of the room shows where it's safe to move with a headset on. Choose Standard so it grips the floor during active play, and keep furniture well outside its edges. It turns a practical need into a stylish nod to the series that imagined virtual worlds long before many fans owned a headset.

Padrift is an independent studio. Sword Art Online is named to describe what our designs are inspired by; we are not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Reki Kawahara, Kadokawa, A-1 Pictures or Aniplex.