diff --git a/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix b/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
index 24cc64ac9aff41..07f84e498db776 100644
--- a/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  preFixup = ''
+  preFixup = stdenv.lib.optionalString qtMode ''
     wrapQtApp "$out/games/nethack"
   '';