diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
index aeea0a5d65c8a..c7a6f3b77639c 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ abstract class AbstractSearchAsyncAction<Result extends SearchPhaseResult> exten
         // it's number of active shards but use 1 as the default if no replica of a shard is active at this point.
         // on a per shards level we use shardIt.remaining() to increment the totalOps pointer but add 1 for the current shard result
         // we process hence we add one for the non active partition here.
-        this.expectedTotalOps = shardsIts.totalSizeWith1ForEmpty();
+        this.expectedTotalOps = shardsIts.totalSize();
         this.maxConcurrentRequestsPerNode = maxConcurrentRequestsPerNode;
         // in the case were we have less shards than maxConcurrentRequestsPerNode we don't need to throttle
         this.throttleConcurrentRequests = maxConcurrentRequestsPerNode < shardsIts.size();