In this article, we show that the localization of an extriangulated category by a multiplicative system satisfying mild assumptions can be equipped with a natural, universal structure of an extriangulated category. This construction unifies the Serre quotient of abelian categories and the Verdier quotient of triangulated categories. Indeed we give such a construction for a bit wider class of morphisms, so that it covers several other localizations appeared in the literature, such as Rump's localization of exact categories by biresolving subcategories, localizations of extriangulated categories by means of Hovey twin cotorsion pairs, and the localization of exact categories by two-sided admissibly percolating subcategories.