diff --git a/libavformat/subtitles.c b/libavformat/subtitles.c
index 659c99d1cf..a3240d88a1 100644
--- a/libavformat/subtitles.c
+++ b/libavformat/subtitles.c
@@ -194,6 +194,9 @@ void ff_subtitles_queue_finalize(void *log_ctx, FFDemuxSubtitlesQueue *q)
 {
     int i;
 
+    if (!q->nb_subs)
+        return;
+
     qsort(q->subs, q->nb_subs, sizeof(*q->subs),
           q->sort == SUB_SORT_TS_POS ? cmp_pkt_sub_ts_pos
                                      : cmp_pkt_sub_pos_ts);