diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 4ee40de698a47f..b81ae5053218ae 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -1472,7 +1472,10 @@ static int perf_stat_init_aggr_mode(void)
 	 * taking the highest cpu number to be the size of
 	 * the aggregation translate cpumap.
 	 */
-	nr = perf_cpu_map__max(evsel_list->core.cpus).cpu;
+	if (evsel_list->core.cpus)
+		nr = perf_cpu_map__max(evsel_list->core.cpus).cpu;
+	else
+		nr = 0;
 	stat_config.cpus_aggr_map = cpu_aggr_map__empty_new(nr + 1);
 	return stat_config.cpus_aggr_map ? 0 : -ENOMEM;
 }