diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 674839af57..636d5473e3 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -672,7 +672,7 @@ dolphin_make_imported_target_if_missing(LibLZMA::LibLZMA LIBLZMA)
 
 dolphin_find_optional_system_library_pkgconfig(ZSTD libzstd>=1.4.0 zstd::zstd Externals/zstd)
 
-dolphin_find_optional_system_library_pkgconfig(ZLIB zlib-ng ZLIB::ZLIB Externals/zlib-ng)
+add_subdirectory(Externals/zlib-ng)
 
 dolphin_find_optional_system_library_pkgconfig(MINIZIP
   "minizip>=4.0.4" minizip::minizip Externals/minizip-ng