diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalSignificantTerms.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalSignificantTerms.java
index 43c8d492ed870..a84b0e369e223 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalSignificantTerms.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalSignificantTerms.java
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.core.Releasables;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.DocValueFormat;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregationReduceContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.Aggregator;
@@ -16,12 +17,12 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.InternalAggregation;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.InternalAggregations;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.InternalMultiBucketAggregation;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.MultiBucketAggregatorsReducer;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.terms.heuristic.SignificanceHeuristic;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.support.SamplingContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -201,50 +202,44 @@ protected AggregatorReducer getLeaderReducer(AggregationReduceContext reduceCont
         return new AggregatorReducer() {
             long globalSubsetSize = 0;
             long globalSupersetSize = 0;
+            final Map<String, ReducerAndProto<B>> buckets = new HashMap<>();
 
-            final List<InternalSignificantTerms<A, B>> aggregations = new ArrayList<>(size);
-
-            // Compute the overall result set size and the corpus size using the
-            // top-level Aggregations from each shard
             @Override
             public void accept(InternalAggregation aggregation) {
                 @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
-                InternalSignificantTerms<A, B> terms = (InternalSignificantTerms<A, B>) aggregation;
+                final InternalSignificantTerms<A, B> terms = (InternalSignificantTerms<A, B>) aggregation;
+                // Compute the overall result set size and the corpus size using the
+                // top-level Aggregations from each shard
                 globalSubsetSize += terms.getSubsetSize();
                 globalSupersetSize += terms.getSupersetSize();
-                aggregations.add(terms);
+                for (B bucket : terms.getBuckets()) {
+                    final ReducerAndProto<B> reducerAndProto = buckets.computeIfAbsent(
+                        bucket.getKeyAsString(),
+                        k -> new ReducerAndProto<>(new MultiBucketAggregatorsReducer(reduceContext, size), bucket)
+                    );
+                    reducerAndProto.reducer.accept(bucket);
+                    reducerAndProto.subsetDf[0] += bucket.subsetDf;
+                    reducerAndProto.supersetDf[0] += bucket.supersetDf;
+                }
             }
 
             @Override
             public InternalAggregation get() {
-                final Map<String, List<B>> buckets = new HashMap<>();
-                for (InternalSignificantTerms<A, B> terms : aggregations) {
-                    for (B bucket : terms.getBuckets()) {
-                        List<B> existingBuckets = buckets.computeIfAbsent(bucket.getKeyAsString(), k -> new ArrayList<>(size));
-                        // Adjust the buckets with the global stats representing the
-                        // total size of the pots from which the stats are drawn
-                        existingBuckets.add(
-                            createBucket(
-                                bucket.getSubsetDf(),
-                                globalSubsetSize,
-                                bucket.getSupersetDf(),
-                                globalSupersetSize,
-                                bucket.aggregations,
-                                bucket
-                            )
-                        );
-                    }
-                }
-
                 final SignificanceHeuristic heuristic = getSignificanceHeuristic().rewrite(reduceContext);
                 final int size = reduceContext.isFinalReduce() == false ? buckets.size() : Math.min(requiredSize, buckets.size());
                 final BucketSignificancePriorityQueue<B> ordered = new BucketSignificancePriorityQueue<>(size);
-                for (Map.Entry<String, List<B>> entry : buckets.entrySet()) {
-                    List<B> sameTermBuckets = entry.getValue();
-                    final B b = reduceBucket(sameTermBuckets, reduceContext);
+                for (ReducerAndProto<B> reducerAndProto : buckets.values()) {
+                    final B b = createBucket(
+                        reducerAndProto.subsetDf[0],
+                        globalSubsetSize,
+                        reducerAndProto.supersetDf[0],
+                        globalSupersetSize,
+                        reducerAndProto.reducer.get(),
+                        reducerAndProto.proto
+                    );
                     b.updateScore(heuristic);
                     if (((b.score > 0) && (b.subsetDf >= minDocCount)) || reduceContext.isFinalReduce() == false) {
-                        B removed = ordered.insertWithOverflow(b);
+                        final B removed = ordered.insertWithOverflow(b);
                         if (removed == null) {
                             reduceContext.consumeBucketsAndMaybeBreak(1);
                         } else {
@@ -254,15 +249,28 @@ public InternalAggregation get() {
                         reduceContext.consumeBucketsAndMaybeBreak(-countInnerBucket(b));
                     }
                 }
-                B[] list = createBucketsArray(ordered.size());
+                final B[] list = createBucketsArray(ordered.size());
                 for (int i = ordered.size() - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
                     list[i] = ordered.pop();
                 }
                 return create(globalSubsetSize, globalSupersetSize, Arrays.asList(list));
             }
+
+            @Override
+            public void close() {
+                for (ReducerAndProto<B> reducerAndProto : buckets.values()) {
+                    Releasables.close(reducerAndProto.reducer);
+                }
+            }
         };
     }
 
+    private record ReducerAndProto<B>(MultiBucketAggregatorsReducer reducer, B proto, long[] subsetDf, long[] supersetDf) {
+        private ReducerAndProto(MultiBucketAggregatorsReducer reducer, B proto) {
+            this(reducer, proto, new long[] { 0 }, new long[] { 0 });
+        }
+    }
+
     @Override
     public InternalAggregation finalizeSampling(SamplingContext samplingContext) {
         long supersetSize = samplingContext.scaleUp(getSupersetSize());
@@ -285,19 +293,6 @@ public InternalAggregation finalizeSampling(SamplingContext samplingContext) {
         );
     }
 
-    private B reduceBucket(List<B> buckets, AggregationReduceContext context) {
-        assert buckets.isEmpty() == false;
-        long subsetDf = 0;
-        long supersetDf = 0;
-        for (B bucket : buckets) {
-            subsetDf += bucket.subsetDf;
-            supersetDf += bucket.supersetDf;
-        }
-        final List<InternalAggregations> aggregations = new BucketAggregationList<>(buckets);
-        final InternalAggregations aggs = InternalAggregations.reduce(aggregations, context);
-        return createBucket(subsetDf, buckets.get(0).subsetSize, supersetDf, buckets.get(0).supersetSize, aggs, buckets.get(0));
-    }
-
     abstract B createBucket(
         long subsetDf,
         long subsetSize,