Introduction: There is limited data on real-world efficacy of left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) procedures compared to anticoagulants (AC) for stroke prevention among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: We utilized a retrospective cohort of over 63 million patients from 51 healthcare organizations across 6 countries via a harmonized electronic medical record-based research data platform. Utilizing international classification of disease version 10 and current procedural terminology codes, adult (≥ 18 years) patients with AF (I48) were identified and grouped by treatment type (LAAC (33340, 02L73DK) vs AC (1015112, Z79.0, BL110)). Patients with a history of stroke prior to AC initiation or LAAC procedure were excluded. Subjects were followed for 5 years for incident ischemic stroke (I63), intracerebral hemorrhage (I61), and all-cause mortality. Treatment groups were propensity score matched by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and comorbidities. Risk ratio(RR) and 95% confidence intervals(CI) among unmatched and matched populations are reported. Results: Among a total of 1,980,130 AF patients; 1,374,013 were flagged for AC use and 8,004 were treated via LAAC. Treatment cohorts were propensity score matched by age, race, sex, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension resulting in an exact 1:1 matched cohort of 8,004 subjects, across all co-variates. In the matched population the mean (SD) age was 75.2 (8.05) years, 63.2% were male; 86.6% were white, 4.4% black, 0.89% Asian, and 3.5% Hispanic; with 64.4% hyperlipidemic and 79.2% hypertensive. Prior to matching, AC (vs. LAAC) was significantly associated with a higher 5-year risk of ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and all-cause mortality. The protective effect of LAAC (vs. AC) was maintained for 5-year risk of ischemic stroke (RR, CI: 0.68, 0.58 - 0.79) and all-cause mortality (RR, CI: 0.42, 0.39 - 0.45). However, the difference in 5-year risk for intracerebral hemorrhage for LAAC (vs. AC) was not statistically lower (RR, CI: 0.72, 0.50 - 1.05). Conclusion: Notwithstanding the possibility of residual confounding in our analyses, LAAC seems to be associated with a lower long-term risk of ischemic stroke and all-cause mortality as compared to AC treated AF patients in large real-world data.