12 Anime Like Sword Art Online June 2026
Sword Art Online hooked viewers with its trapped-in-a-VRMMO premise, death-game stakes, and the blend of leveling-up adventure with action and romance as Kirito and Asuna fight to escape a virtual world. Fans chasing that mix gravitate toward other 'stuck-in-the-game' worlds, isekai power fantasies, and high-stakes survival games. Every recommendation below appears across multiple independent "anime like Sword Art Online" lists and community threads — consensus picks first, with the exact reason each one matches. Last verified June 26, 2026.
💖 The list, ranked
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1
Log Horizon
30,000 players trapped in the MMO Elder Tale must build a society to survive — the closest 'stuck in a game' parallel.
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2
Accel World
Same creator as SAO (Reki Kawahara); an insecure boy enters an AR fighting game to level up and find himself.
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3
.hack//Sign
The original 'trapped in The World' mystery that paved the way for SAO's whole subgenre.
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4
Overlord
A player stays logged into a shut-down MMO as his all-powerful avatar, ruling NPCs who now think for themselves.
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5
No Game No Life
Two gaming-prodigy siblings get pulled into a world where everything is decided by games — SAO's 'masters of the game' energy.
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6
Shangri-La Frontier
A god-tier full-dive MMORPG adventure with rich game mechanics and boss-hunting, for fans of SAO's VRMMO grind.
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7
Solo Leveling
A weak hunter gains an RPG-style leveling system and climbs from zero to overpowered in dungeon raids.
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8
The Rising of the Shield Hero
Summoned into a quest-and-leveling fantasy world with party-building and a slow-burn party dynamic like SAO.
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9
Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World
Death and respawn 'return-by-death' raises the stakes the way SAO's permadeath did — high tension, emotional drama.
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10
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Reincarnated-into-a-fantasy-world adventure with skill systems, growth, and nation-building escapism.
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11
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
A grounded, survival-focused take on a group stuck in an RPG world — the gritty flip side of SAO's adventure.
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12
KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
Comedy isekai with RPG party mechanics and quests — a lighter, parody counterpart to SAO's adventure loop.
❓ FAQ
What's the closest match to Sword Art Online?
Log Horizon — it shares SAO's exact core premise of players literally trapped inside a VRMMO, though it leans into world-building and game mechanics rather than romance and death-game terror.
What's the best 'trapped in a game' anime like SAO?
Beyond Log Horizon, Overlord (stuck as your avatar in a shut-down MMO) and the genre-founding .hack//Sign (a mystery about being unable to log out of 'The World') are the standouts.
What death-game anime feels like SAO's stakes?
Re:Zero delivers SAO-level lethal tension through its brutal 'return by death' loop, while several survival-game series offer the same kill-or-be-killed premise.
What isekai is most like Sword Art Online?
The Rising of the Shield Hero and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime hit the same leveling-up, party-building adventure-escapism that fans love in SAO.
Are there shorter picks for fans of SAO?
Yes — No Game No Life (12 eps), Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (12 eps), and Solo Leveling Season 1 (12 eps) are all single-cour series you can finish quickly.
📚 Sources
Cross-checked against: CBR — Best anime like Sword Art Online · Game Rant — Best isekai anime like SAO. Last verified June 26, 2026.