diff --git a/externals/CMakeLists.txt b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
index 7df8cfac..e9fa0d6d 100644
--- a/externals/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,5 +2,7 @@
 # simply add the directory to that file as a subdirectory
 # to have CMake automatically recognize them.
 
-# fmtlib formatting library
-add_subdirectory(fmt)
+if (NOT DYNARMIC_NO_BUNDLED_FMT)
+    # fmtlib formatting library
+    add_subdirectory(fmt)
+endif()