The series was officially announced on February 20, 2011, at the Warner Mycal Cinemas Minato Mirai in Yokohama, with a digest of episode 1 shown as a bonus feature during an encore screening of the 10th Anniversary Yu-Gi-Oh! movie.

The title 'ZEXAL' is a coined word combining the concept of 'ZEAL' (passion) doubling when clashing, centered around the letter 'X'.

The main theme of the show is the 'challenging spirit', born from a desire to convey to children the spirit of never fearing failure and facing any difficulty head-on, like protagonist Yuma.

Original Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi was involved in the original character design concepts, starting from the character Astral (initially planned for another project) and expanding the new Yu-Gi-Oh! world from there; this was the last TV series he was directly involved in producing.

The protagonist Yuma was voiced by Yu Hatanaka, who was a 16-year-old high school student at the time, while the heroine Kotori was voiced by Mikako Komatsu in her first-ever leading female role.

This was the last Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series to be broadcast via analog terrestrial television in the TV Tokyo network.

Unlike previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series where protagonists started as dueling prodigies, Yuma is depicted as a beginner who fails often, and early episodes even included a beginner's dueling lesson segment at the end of broadcasts.

In overseas versions, Kotori's miniskirt was lengthened to below the knee and a light blur was added to Astral's lower body for censorship purposes; subtitled broadcasts also used color-coded dialogue, with Yuma's lines in yellow, Astral's in light blue, and other characters' in brown.

The series collaborated with the comedian group 'PaPaPARK!' composed of father-comedians from Yoshimoto Kogyo, aiming to create a show families could enjoy together; comedy duos Penalty and Nakagawake served as promotional ambassadors, with Nakagawake even appearing in episode 26 as WDC tournament participants.