Abstract: Aiming at the complex overburden fracture development and repeated surface disturbance induced by multi-seam repeated mining, a shallow-buried multi-seam working face was selected as the research object. Based on discrete element method (DEM) simulations, fractal geometry was introduced to quantitatively characterize overburden fractures, and fracture rate theory was applied to clarify the evolution of fracture development and surface damage in coal seam groups. The results show: ① As downward mining progresses, fractures undergo a cyclic evolution process of “activation–expansion–compaction–reactivation.” Under close-distance mining conditions, the overburden breakage angle maintains a consistent trend; however, the disturbance effect weakens with increasing seam spacing, resulting in divergent breakage angles and a “double-trapezoid” fracture morphology. ② Fractal geometry analysis reveals the characteristics of multi-disturbance and zonal evolution of fractures in multi-seam mining. Global fractal analysis indicates that after extraction of the first seam, the fractal dimension increases steadily under the influence of various factors, with an average increment of approximately 0.06. In contrast, after extraction of the underlying seams, the fractal dimension initially decreases due to fracture closure and subsequently increases during re-expansion. Compared with close-distance mining, larger seam spacing exhibits a more pronounced disturbance effect on the global fractal dimension. Zonal fractal dimensions further classify fracture development into three regions: “fracture-developed zone—disturbance-activated zone—compaction-closed zone.” ③ Image processing techniques were employed to extract fracture lengths, showing that the average fracture length in areas with burial depth less than 100 m is 39.4 m, significantly greater than that in areas deeper than 100 m (23.7 m). Analysis of fracture rate and its increment demonstrates that when the seam spacing ranges from 21.26 m to 27.42 m, the incremental fracture rate induced by upper-seam disturbance is significant; when the spacing increases to 86.8 m, the disturbance effect attenuates, resulting in a smaller fracture rate increment and greater surface subsidence. Fractures dynamically alternate between propagation and closure during mining. ④ Surface subsidence predictions were conducted by integrating simulation results, the maximum subsidence model, and the probability integral method, with absolute errors not exceeding 3.6%. The relationship curve between surface subsidence and fracture evolution indicates that surface subsidence is positively correlated with fracture development under shallow multi-seam mining conditions.