The Steins;Gate anime is an adaptation of the 2009 visual novel by 5pb. and Nitroplus, the second game in the Science Adventure series; the anime adaptation was announced in July 2010 by Chiyomaru Shikura, then-chairman of 5pb.

The TV series follows the original game's story almost faithfully up to the True Ending, though some optional events that are skippable in the game were cut from the anime.

Composer Takeshi Abo, who had only a minor role on the previous Chaos;Head anime, was brought on with colleague Jun Murakami to score Steins;Gate; he reused the game's musical atmosphere but had to adapt his workflow to synchronize music with animated visuals, a very different process from composing for a game.

The opening theme 'Hacking to the Gate' was composed around the same time as the game's Xbox 360/PC opening theme 'Skyclad Observer' and is considered its 'version 2'; its second verse lyrics subtly foreshadow later plot twists, meant to be appreciated on a re-listen after watching the mid-to-late episodes.

Episode 22's ending replaced the usual vocal theme with an arranged version of 'Fake Verthandi,' the track used in the original game at the moment the story branches into the True End route.

For episode 23's rebroadcast in December 2015, a new alternate version called 'episode 23 (β)' replaced some scenes to connect to the world of the upcoming sequel Steins;Gate 0; this was aired without prior announcement, and the regularly scheduled episode 24 was skipped that week in favor of a special program instead.

The idea for episode 23 (β) reportedly started as a spur-of-the-moment idea from series creator Chiyomaru Shikura around the time episode 5 was already airing in its rerun, and once it was greenlit, the release date of the Steins;Gate 0 game was changed to align with the broadcast.

The staff behind the reveal of the anime-original film sequel leaked the information themselves: Chiyomaru Shikura, who devised the film's original concept, accidentally leaked details about it on Twitter during the live broadcast of the TV series finale, before the official announcement had aired.

The ninth and final Blu-ray/DVD volume included a bonus 25th episode titled 'Egoistic Poriomania,' an original story not found in the source game, produced with the original director moving up to supervising director and a new director brought in for that episode.

Steins;Gate holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews and is frequently cited by critics and outlets like IGN and Crunchyroll as one of the best anime series of the 2010s and of all time.

The film premiered on just 18 screens but still drew 57,634 admissions and about 86.8 million yen in its first two days; an expansion to 20 screens and distribution of exclusive short-story booklets helped it climb back to 10th place in its fourth week, finishing with a total box office of 560 million yen.

The organization SERN in the story is based on the real-world CERN research organization.