Which anime story came first, Accel World or Sword Art Online?


I saw over the internet that _Accel World_ came out sometime in 2009 and
_Sword Art Online_ came out around in 2013, but it seems like many people
saying _SAO_ came first than _Accel World_.

Which came first, _Accel World_ or _Sword Art Online_?




**Accel World came first**. According to their Wikipedia pages, [Accel
World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accel_World) light novel started in
**February 2009** while [Sword Art
Online](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_Art_Online) started in **April
2009**. If you are referring to anime release, then the same can also be said
since Accel World anime started airing in **April 2012** while SAO anime
started airing in **July 2012**.

As pointed out by @Memor-X, some people say that SAO came first but this most
likely refers to **the chronology of the events in both stories and not to the
release order of light novels/anime** because as mentioned
[here](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2470/are-sword-art-online-
and-accel-world-related/2471#2471), the events in SAO happened before the
events in Accel World on the same universe/timeline.

