

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_?


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sword-art-online accel-world
Which anime story 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.


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**Sword Art Online** was first. Kawahara originally wrote SAO in 2001 for a
Dengeki Light novel contest, but due to exceeding the contest's page limit, he
posted it online in 2002 under the pseudonym "Kunori Fumio". The story
eventually concluded (with the Alicization arc) in 2008.

Afterwards, he decided to re-enter the same contest with what would later be
called **Accel World**. His editor (Miki Kazuma) found out about SAO and
decided to get that published as well.


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