The fracture and damage evolution patterns of hydraulic asphalt concrete (HAC) under cyclic tensile loading determine the performance of asphalt concrete impermeable structures in embankment dams under seismic loading. Therefore, in this study, the whole fatigue tensile damage process of HAC under different loading conditions was studied with the help of acoustic emission (AE) technique. The results indicated that the fatigue behaviors of the HAC and AE signals follow the same evolutionary pattern, experiencing the initial deformation stage, the stability stage, the acceleration stage, and the failure stage. The b value, obtained from the least square fit between AE event number and magnitude, decreases to its lowest point upon specimen failure, and this decrease corresponds to a sudden increase in the peak frequency of the AE. The parametric analysis of relative amplitude-average frequency values classified for different cracking modes revealed that the tensile cracking dominates during the fatigue damage process, while the proportion of shear cracking events increases during the failure stage. Moreover, the peak value of the proportion of shear cracking events appears within the range near the point of failure, making it a useful indicator for providing critical warnings of HAC fatigue damage.