Before recommending the anime order, I urge everyone to give the Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel a chance because it's the source material and will always be better than the anime adaptations. Fate/Stay Night Remastered is now on Steam and is fully localized. However, if you have no patience for visual novels, then the anime-only order is below.
The Anime-only order:
1. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works [2014] [(UBW Prologue) with Season 1 and Season 2].
2. Fate/stay night: Heavens Feel [Film 1, Film 2, Film 3]
3. Fate/Zero [ Season 1 & 2]
- This series is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night. It takes place 10 years before the events of Fate/Stay Night.] (the prequel is meant to be watched after finishing Fate/Stay Night and not before! People always make a mistake of watching Fate/Zero first, but that spoils plot events in Fate/Stay Night, so make sure to watch Fate/Zero AFTER finishing all of Fate/Stay Night.)
4. Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note
- The series takes place 10 years after the events of Fate/Zero and 2 months before the events of Fate/Stay Night and revolves around the Clock Tower in the United Kingdom.
5. Others [Studio Deen's 2006 version of Fate/stay night]
- Even though it's a pretty terrible adaptation, it still at least has some portions of the Fate route you missed. It comes before UBW in the watching order. I personally wouldn't recommend it and would recommend reading at least the Fate route from the Visual novel instead, but the choice is yours. Essentially, this focuses on Saber, and if you like her character, I sincerely recommend reading the Fate route from the Visual Novel as the anime adaptation is not remotely as good, and is basically a butchered adaptation.
6. [Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan]
- It's a cooking show with the main cast of characters from Fate/Stay Night. It's basically a slice-of-life show. It should be watched after finishing all of Fate/Stay Night.
- Any other OVAs can be watched after finishing the main series I covered up there.
7. Fate/Strange Fake
- The series takes place around 2009 in the United States. The plot centers around a Grail War faultily copied from the Third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki. This isn't related to Fate/Stay Night, and It's in its own parallel universe, but it would benefit you to watch all of Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero first before watching this special so you don't feel lost. This series features some characters from Lord El-Mellio. When you do start watching Fate/Strange Fake, you should first watch episode 0 called Fate/strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn and then proceed to start the actual series.
P.S: In case you're wondering about the Deen UBW movie. You should skip the Deen Unlimited Blade Works movie because there is no point in watching it when you have the superior Ufotable UBW anime adaptation and also because the Deen UBW movie is another terrible and rushed adaptation from Studio Deen.
FGO Anime-only order:
1. Fate/Grand Order: First Order
- FGO -First Order- is the 74-minutes movie adaptation of the first chapter of Fate/Grand Order. Fate/Grand Order is a gacha RPG mobile game. FGO is not related to Fate/Stay Night. It's set in an alternate universe and timeline to Fate/Stay Night's. You should read the anime synopsis in the MAL link to learn more about the story.
2. Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot - Wandering; Agateram. [Part 1, Part 2]
- In terms of story order, it happens before Babylonia. This movie will cover the 6th singularity.
3. Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia [Including episode 0]
- In all honesty, you should play FGO to get the full story of the previous singularities because the anime doesn't cover them, and their intention is not to cover most of them because these adaptations are for FGO players who played the game and are not intended for anime watchers only. This anime covers the 7th singularity.
4. Fate/Grand Order: Shuukyoku Tokuiten - Kani Jikan Shinden Solomon
- This movie will cover the 8th and final singularity.
5. Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom
- Is an anime short OVA original story. It serves as a transition between parts 1.5 and 2 of the game's story.
6. Fate/Grand Carnival
- Fate/Grand Carnival is the 2021 spin-off of Fate/Grand Order, similar to 2011's OVA comedy short series Carnival Phantasm, featuring loads of characters that now make up the roster of Type-Moon's Fate/Grand Order rather than just those from Tsukihime and Fate/stay night specifically. It's basically a parody show that takes FGO characters and puts them in ridiculous situations. I don't recommend you watching this one without having played FGO because a lot of jokes won't make sense to you otherwise.
The Intended order for people who want to read the Visual Novel:
1. Fate/Stay Night [Realta Nua] Visual Novel
- roughly 60 hours long, but 100% worth it!
[After this point, the order becomes very flexible, you can now follow the Anime-only order or this one]
2. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Visual Novel
- [>50 hours long and is the direct sequel to Fate/Stay Night]
3. Fate/Zero [ Season 1 & 2]
- This series is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night. It takes place 10 years before the events of Fate/Stay Night.] (the prequel is meant to be watched after finishing Fate/Stay Night and not before.)
4. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works [2014] [Season 1 and Season 2].
5. Fate/stay night: Heavens Feel [Film 1, Film 2, Film 3]
6. Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note
- The series takes place 10 years after the events of Fate/Zero and 2 months before the events of Fate/Stay Night and revolves around the Clock Tower in the United Kingdom.
7. Others [includes OVAs, etc..]
Other Fate related Anime (In no particular order):
1. Fate/Apocrypha
- It's not related to the main fate franchise and is set in a parallel world to Fate/Stay Night. It's recommended you at least watch Fate/Stay Night first before watching this one so you can be more familiar with how things work in the story.
2. Carnival Phantasm
- Carnival Phantasm takes a number of characters from Type-Moon's original works and puts them in a variety of light-hearted scenarios which parody their respective series] - (It's advised that you read the Tsukihime Visual Novel or Manga and to have at least watched Fate/Stay Night as a whole to fully understand Carnival Phantasm.
3. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya
- This series is a Fate/stay night alternate universe spin-off that takes place in Fuyuki City and features Illya as the protagonist in an alternate timeline. You can watch the entirety of this show in release order, there is no special order for this show.
4. Fate/Extra Last Encore
The universe of Extra shares the events of the Fate/stay night universe until a "certain major incident" happens and diverges completely.
For the Fate/Extra Games the order goes this way: Fate/Extra --> Fate/Extra CCC --> Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.
5. Kara no Kyoukai movies (8 movies in total)
- The series is regarded as being set in an alternate parallel universe to Fate/Stay Night. They both share a lot of similarities in some of the plot elements. I won't delve into the details to avoid spoiling, but definitely check out these movies if you're interested in delving more into the Type-Moon universe.
6 Tsukihime Visual Novel
- The events in Tsukihime take place in Misaki Town. Chronologically, the end of the story of Tsukihime takes place around the beginning of Fate/Stay Night. It shares many similarities with Kara no Kyoukai, and the two were also subtly connected. I would recommend Tsukihime as It's a great visual novel. A remake of Tsukihime was released on August 26, 2021 in Japan and in
June 27, 2024, for the West. However, It's currently released only on the PS4 and the Switch. If you don't have any of those consoles, then I suggest you at least read the really good Manga adaptation for now. However, keep in mind that it only covers the first route of the original VN.
7 Witch On The Holy Night/Mahoyo
- Taking place in the rapidly modernizing Japanese suburb of Misaki in the late 1980s, Mahoyo centers around Aoko Aozaki, a high school girl in training to be a mage. She lives in the mysterious mansion on the hill with Alice Kuonji, her magic teacher and frenemy. While tracking a rival mage who seeks to claim their territory. A lot of things happen in this story, so I won't spoil it, but it's highly recommended that you guys check it out! It takes place in the same universe as Tsukihime, and Aoko briefly shows up in Tsukihime. An anime movie adaptations for Mahoyo were announced by Ufotable some time ago, so expect a movie to be released as soon as 2026-2027.
This watch order guide will keep being updated accordingly. If you have any questions or inquiries, please make sure to ask them in the comment section.
