diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 704924aa4f..2a539cc734 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -73,3 +73,6 @@
 [submodule "SPIRV-Tools"]
 	path = externals/SPIRV-Tools
 	url = https://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Tools.git
+[submodule "fmt"]
+	path = externals/fmt
+	url = https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt.git
diff --git a/externals/CMakeLists.txt b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
index 234e1b8775..38f7a9f067 100644
--- a/externals/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ if (NOT TARGET SPIRV-Headers::SPIRV-Headers)
     add_subdirectory(SPIRV-Headers)
 endif()
 
+# fmt (also used by Dynarmic, so needs to be added first)
+find_package(fmt)
+if (NOT TARGET fmt::fmt)
+    # fmtlib formatting library
+    set(FMT_INSTALL ON)
+    add_subdirectory(fmt)
+endif()
+
 # Xbyak (also used by Dynarmic, so needs to be added first)
 if ((ARCHITECTURE_x86 OR ARCHITECTURE_x86_64) AND NOT TARGET xbyak::xbyak)
     add_subdirectory(xbyak)
diff --git a/externals/fmt b/externals/fmt
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000..0c9fce2ffe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/externals/fmt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 0c9fce2ffefecfdce794e1859584e25877b7b592