<P> Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara with accompanying illustrations drawn by abec . The series takes place in the near - future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG worlds . Originally self - published online under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori, ASCII Media Works began publishing the novels on April 10, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint . The series has since grown to 18 volumes as of August 10, 2016 and the 20th volume was released on September 8, 2017 . Yen Press began publishing the novels in English in North America and United Kingdom with the first volume on April 22, 2014 . The novels are also published in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, France, and Poland . With more than 16 million copies in print worldwide, there are future plans for publications in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Vietnam and others . </P> <P> Kawahara also began writing a parallel series of light novels titled Sword Art Online: Progressive, a reboot of the original series' Aincrad arc . However, instead of covering the arc in one light novel, Kawahara plans to take a floor by floor approach of the Aincrad arc . The first volume was published on October 10, 2012 and four volumes have been published as of December 2015 . </P>

How many volumes of sword art online are there