diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/bytes/ByteFieldDataComparator.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/bytes/ByteFieldDataComparator.java
index 51e7d60e585..1123dd9a182 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/bytes/ByteFieldDataComparator.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/bytes/ByteFieldDataComparator.java
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ public class ByteFieldDataComparator extends NumericFieldDataComparator {
     }
 
     @Override public int compareBottom(int doc) {
-        return bottom - currentFieldData.shortValue(doc);
+        return bottom - currentFieldData.byteValue(doc);
     }
 
     @Override public void copy(int slot, int doc) {