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50 free Sword Art Online trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
In November 2022, 10,000 players logged into Sword Art Online and discovered they could not log out. Reki Kawahara's light novels, and the A-1 Pictures anime that followed, turned that premise into one of the most popular franchises in anime. This SAO quiz covers all the arcs: Aincrad and its 100 floors, the fairy world of ALO, Gun Gale Online and Death Gun, the Underworld of Alicization, plus the films Ordinal Scale and Aria of a Starless Night. Expect questions on Kirito, Asuna, Sinon, Leafa, Eugeo, the voice cast, the theme songs and the real-world history of the series. Every answer is sourced and explained.
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Q 01Who wrote the Sword Art Online light novels?
Reki Kawahara
He first wrote the story in 2001 for a Dengeki contest, but it ran over the page limit, so he posted it online under the pen name Fumio Kunori.
Q 02How was Sword Art Online first released, from 2002 to 2008?
As a free web novel
It only reached print after the author won a Dengeki prize with Accel World and the publisher asked to see his earlier work.
Q 03Under which imprint are the Sword Art Online light novels published in Japan?
Dengeki Bunko
ASCII Media Works' imprint also publishes the author's Accel World; the anime was announced at a Dengeki Bunko festival in 2011.
Q 04In what year is the game Sword Art Online released within the story?
2022
On November 6 of that year, 10,000 players log in for the first time and find there is no logout button.
Q 05What is the name of the helmet that lets players dive into SAO by stimulating their senses?
NerveGear
Removing it by force, or dying in the game, fries the wearer's brain; the safer AmuSphere later replaced it.
Q 06Who created the game Sword Art Online in the story?
Akihiko Kayaba
His only goal in life was to make the floating castle real; he later uploads his mind to the internet at the cost of his life.
Q 07How many players log into SAO on launch day and become trapped?
10,000
Of those, 1,000 had taken part in the earlier closed beta, which is where Kirito got his head start.
Q 08What is the name of the floating steel castle that serves as SAO's setting?
Aincrad
It is later revived through the World Seed and revisited in the Ordinal Scale film, when its bosses invade the real Tokyo.
Q 09How many floors must the players clear to escape the castle?
100
The game actually ends on the 75th floor, when Kirito exposes and defeats the creator's secret player avatar.
Q 10What is Kirito's real name?
Kazuto Kirigaya
His player name is built from syllables of his real one; Klein is Ryōtarō Tsuboi and Agil is Andrew Gilbert Mills.
Q 11The insult "beater", hurled at Kirito, is a portmanteau of which two words?
Beta tester and cheater
He takes on the label to draw resentment away from other beta testers, then plays solo.
Q 12What in-game alias did the game's creator use as leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath?
Heathcliff
Asuna was the guild's sub-leader; Kirito works out the secret and defeats him in a duel, ending the game early.
Q 13How many SAO players, including Asuna, remain trapped after the game is cleared?
300
They have been secretly moved into another game for mind-control experiments by a rival of Asuna's father.
Q 21What is the real name of the sniper Sinon?
Shino Asada
She took up GGO to confront a fear of guns rooted in a childhood post-office robbery; her weapon is a PGM Hecate II.
Q 22What experimental FullDive machine does Kirito test for the organization RATH?
The Soul Translator
It reads the "fluctlights" of the brain; while inside, Kirito cannot carry memories in or out.
Q 23How much faster does time flow in the Underworld than in the real world?
1,000 times
That acceleration is how Kirito ends up spending 200 years there after the war, with Asuna choosing to stay beside him.
Q 14In which fairy-themed game does Kirito search for Asuna in the second arc?
Alfheim Online
She is held captive atop the World Tree, forced into the role of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.
Q 15What is the avatar name of Suguha Kirigaya, Kirito's cousin and adoptive sister?
Leafa
She guides him toward the World Tree without realizing who he is, a plotline that drew both praise and criticism.
Q 16What is Yui, the child Kirito and Asuna adopt in SAO?
An artificial intelligence
Her full designation is Mental Health Counselling Program version 1; she later reappears as a navigation pixie.
Q 17Which villain holds Asuna captive as "Titania" while playing the fairy king Oberon?
Nobuyuki Sugou
He plans to marry the comatose Asuna to seize her family's company; Kirito defeats him with admin rights granted by SAO's creator.
Q 18What is The Seed that the dying game creator entrusts to Kirito?
A program package for building virtual worlds
Kirito has it leaked online, reviving the VR industry and spawning every later game world in the series.
Q 19Which first-person-shooter game is the setting of the Phantom Bullet arc?
Gun Gale Online
It was built from the World Seed by an American company and is also the setting of the Alternative spin-off.
Q 20What is the name of the GGO tournament Kirito enters to hunt a killer?
Bullet of Bullets
Players shot by "Death Gun" in the tournament are dying in the real world; the killer turns out to be a former member of the SAO guild Laughing Coffin.
Q 24What is the name of the AI RATH is trying to develop in the Underworld?
A.L.I.C.E.
The acronym is embodied in the village girl Alice Zuberg, who becomes an Integrity Knight and remembers her true nature with Kirito's help.
Q 25Who is Kirito's closest friend in the Underworld, a wood-carver from the village of Rulid?
Eugeo
He dies in the battle against the Administrator; his memory fragments later restore Kirito's broken fluctlight.
Q 26Which organization, led by "The Administrator", rules the Human Empire in the Underworld?
The Axiom Church
Its Integrity Knights take Alice away for touching the Dark Territory and breaking the Taboo Index.
Q 27What giant tree are Kirito and his Underworld friend tasked with cutting down?
The Gigas Cedar
Felling it frees them to leave for the Swordsman Academy in North Centoria.
Q 28How many years does Kirito end up spending in the Underworld after the war?
200
Asuna chose to stay with him; afterward he plans to enroll at a university of electrical engineering.
Q 29Which studio animated the Sword Art Online TV series?
A-1 Pictures
Aniplex and Genco produced it, and the spin-off Alternative Gun Gale Online went to a different studio, 3Hz.
Q 30Who directed the Sword Art Online anime?
Tomohiko Itō
The main staff returned for the Ordinal Scale film, announced in 2015.