diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec.go
index 538611ec0d3f..12ee32e84776 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec.go
@@ -728,10 +728,12 @@ func mergeOrderedNonOverlappingStreams(resps []*LokiResponse, limit uint32, dire
 }
 
 func toProtoMatrix(m loghttp.Matrix) []queryrange.SampleStream {
+	res := make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0, len(m))
+
 	if len(m) == 0 {
-		return nil
+		return res
 	}
-	res := make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0, len(m))
+
 	for _, stream := range m {
 		samples := make([]cortexpb.Sample, 0, len(stream.Values))
 		for _, s := range stream.Values {
@@ -749,10 +751,11 @@ func toProtoMatrix(m loghttp.Matrix) []queryrange.SampleStream {
 }
 
 func toProtoVector(v loghttp.Vector) []queryrange.SampleStream {
+	res := make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0, len(v))
+
 	if len(v) == 0 {
-		return nil
+		return res
 	}
-	res := make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0, len(v))
 	for _, s := range v {
 		res = append(res, queryrange.SampleStream{
 			Samples: []cortexpb.Sample{{
diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec_test.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec_test.go
index a4e80b28e2ea..9e229679bcbc 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec_test.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/codec_test.go
@@ -122,6 +122,36 @@ func Test_codec_DecodeResponse(t *testing.T) {
 				Statistics: statsResult,
 			}, false,
 		},
+		{
+			"matrix-empty-streams",
+			&http.Response{StatusCode: 200, Body: ioutil.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(matrixStringEmptyResult))},
+			nil,
+			&LokiPromResponse{
+				Response: &queryrange.PrometheusResponse{
+					Status: loghttp.QueryStatusSuccess,
+					Data: queryrange.PrometheusData{
+						ResultType: loghttp.ResultTypeMatrix,
+						Result:     make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0), // shouldn't be nil.
+					},
+				},
+				Statistics: statsResult,
+			}, false,
+		},
+		{
+			"vector-empty-streams",
+			&http.Response{StatusCode: 200, Body: ioutil.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(vectorStringEmptyResult))},
+			nil,
+			&LokiPromResponse{
+				Response: &queryrange.PrometheusResponse{
+					Status: loghttp.QueryStatusSuccess,
+					Data: queryrange.PrometheusData{
+						ResultType: loghttp.ResultTypeVector,
+						Result:     make([]queryrange.SampleStream, 0), // shouldn't be nil.
+					},
+				},
+				Statistics: statsResult,
+			}, false,
+		},
 		{
 			"streams v1", &http.Response{StatusCode: 200, Body: ioutil.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(streamsString))},
 			&LokiRequest{Direction: logproto.FORWARD, Limit: 100, Path: "/loki/api/v1/query_range"},
@@ -905,6 +935,23 @@ var (
 	},
 	"status": "success"
   }`
+	matrixStringEmptyResult = `{
+	"data": {
+	  ` + statsResultString + `
+	  "resultType": "matrix",
+	  "result": []
+	},
+	"status": "success"
+  }`
+	vectorStringEmptyResult = `{
+	"data": {
+	  ` + statsResultString + `
+	  "resultType": "vector",
+	  "result": []
+	},
+	"status": "success"
+  }`
+
 	sampleStreams = []queryrange.SampleStream{
 		{
 			Labels:  []cortexpb.LabelAdapter{{Name: "filename", Value: "/var/hostlog/apport.log"}, {Name: "job", Value: "varlogs"}},