diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/discovery/DiscoveryStats.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/discovery/DiscoveryStats.java
index 7dab4235cde..a4c788d5c22 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/discovery/DiscoveryStats.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/discovery/DiscoveryStats.java
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ public class DiscoveryStats implements Writeable, ToXContentFragment {
     public DiscoveryStats(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
         queueStats = in.readOptionalWriteable(PendingClusterStateStats::new);
 
-        if (in.getVersion().onOrAfter(Version.V_7_0_0_alpha1)) {
+        if (in.getVersion().onOrAfter(Version.V_6_1_0)) {
             publishStats = in.readOptionalWriteable(PublishClusterStateStats::new);
         } else {
             publishStats = null;
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ public class DiscoveryStats implements Writeable, ToXContentFragment {
     public void writeTo(StreamOutput out) throws IOException {
         out.writeOptionalWriteable(queueStats);
 
-        if (out.getVersion().onOrAfter(Version.V_7_0_0_alpha1)) {
+        if (out.getVersion().onOrAfter(Version.V_6_1_0)) {
             out.writeOptionalWriteable(publishStats);
         }
     }
diff --git a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/nodes.stats/30_discovery.yml b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/nodes.stats/30_discovery.yml
index 629c8de164d..ad8058876ae 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/nodes.stats/30_discovery.yml
+++ b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/nodes.stats/30_discovery.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 ---
 "Discovery stats":
   - skip:
-      version:     " - 6.99.99"
-      reason:      "published_cluster_states_received is not (yet) in 6.x"
+      version:     " - 6.0.99"
+      reason:      "published_cluster_states_received arrived in 6.1.0"
   - do:
       cluster.state: {}