diff --git a/wp-includes/option.php b/wp-includes/option.php
index 1c0d88225e..21a09bbd51 100644
--- a/wp-includes/option.php
+++ b/wp-includes/option.php
@@ -1583,7 +1583,16 @@ function update_network_option( $network_id, $option, $value ) {
 	 */
 	$value = apply_filters( "pre_update_site_option_{$option}", $value, $old_value, $option, $network_id );
 
-	if ( $value === $old_value ) {
+	/*
+	 * If the new and old values are the same, no need to update.
+	 *
+	 * Unserialized values will be adequate in most cases. If the unserialized
+	 * data differs, the (maybe) serialized data is checked to avoid
+	 * unnecessary database calls for otherwise identical object instances.
+	 *
+	 * See https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44956
+	 */
+	if ( $value === $old_value || maybe_serialize( $value ) === maybe_serialize( $old_value ) ) {
 		return false;
 	}
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index 470a5044df..7fb21fcb56 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '5.1-beta1-44661';
+$wp_version = '5.1-beta1-44662';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.