Best Sword Art Online arcs

Aincrad leads with an ELO of 1,354, ahead of War of Underworld (1,328) and Alicization (1,273). Ranked over 701 duels between 9 contenders, last updated August 24, 2026.

Rank the best arcs from the Sword Art Online anime.

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.