diff --git a/roomserver/internal/input/input.go b/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
index 3f557d3e7..5f67e0d25 100644
--- a/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
+++ b/roomserver/internal/input/input.go
@@ -299,6 +299,9 @@ func (w *worker) _next() {
 		return
 	}
 
+	// Since we either Ack() or Term() the message at this point, we can defer decrementing the room backpressure
+	defer roomserverInputBackpressure.With(prometheus.Labels{"room_id": w.roomID}).Dec()
+
 	// Try to unmarshal the input room event. If the JSON unmarshalling
 	// fails then we'll terminate the message — this notifies NATS that
 	// we are done with the message and never want to see it again.
@@ -313,8 +316,6 @@ func (w *worker) _next() {
 		scope.SetTag("event_id", inputRoomEvent.Event.EventID())
 	}
 
-	defer roomserverInputBackpressure.With(prometheus.Labels{"room_id": w.roomID}).Dec()
-
 	// Process the room event. If something goes wrong then we'll tell
 	// NATS to terminate the message. We'll store the error result as
 	// a string, because we might want to return that to the caller if
@@ -417,6 +418,8 @@ func (r *Inputer) queueInputRoomEvents(
 			}).Error("Roomserver failed to queue async event")
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("r.JetStream.PublishMsg: %w", err)
 		}
+
+		// Now that the event is queued, increment the room backpressure
 		roomserverInputBackpressure.With(prometheus.Labels{"room_id": roomID}).Inc()
 	}
 	return