Background motion and visual clutter are present in almost all augmented reality applications. However, there is minimal prior work that has investigated the effects that background motion and clutter (e.g., a busy city street) can have on the perception of virtual object motion in augmented reality. To investigate these issues, we conducted an experiment in which participants’ perceptions of changes in overlaid virtual object velocity were evaluated on a black background and a high clutter/motion background. Results offer insights into the impact that background clutter and motion has on perception in augmented reality.