diff --git a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/publicroomsapi/storage/storage.go b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/publicroomsapi/storage/storage.go
index 02bd54011..700d4173d 100644
--- a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/publicroomsapi/storage/storage.go
+++ b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/publicroomsapi/storage/storage.go
@@ -93,31 +93,37 @@ func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) GetPublicRooms(offset int64, limit int16, fi
 // UpdateRoomFromEvents iterate over a slice of state events and call
 // UpdateRoomFromEvent on each of them to update the database representation of
 // the rooms updated by each event.
-// The slice of events to remove is used to process membership events.
+// The slice of events to remove is used to update the number of joined members
+// for the room in the database.
 // If the update triggered by one of the events failed, aborts the process and
 // returns an error.
 func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) UpdateRoomFromEvents(
 	eventsToAdd []gomatrixserverlib.Event, eventsToRemove []gomatrixserverlib.Event,
 ) error {
 	for _, event := range eventsToAdd {
-		if err := d.UpdateRoomFromEvent(event, eventsToRemove); err != nil {
+		if err := d.UpdateRoomFromEvent(event); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
 
+	for _, event := range eventsToRemove {
+		if event.Type() == "m.room.member" {
+			if err := d.updateNumJoinedUsers(event, true); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
 // UpdateRoomFromEvent updates the database representation of a room from a Matrix event, by
 // checking the event's type to know which attribute to change and using the event's content
 // to define the new value of the attribute.
-// The slice of events to remove is used to process membership events.
 // If the event doesn't match with any property used to compute the public room directory,
 // does nothing.
 // If something went wrong during the process, returns an error.
-func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) UpdateRoomFromEvent(
-	event gomatrixserverlib.Event, eventsToRemove []gomatrixserverlib.Event,
-) error {
+func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) UpdateRoomFromEvent(event gomatrixserverlib.Event) error {
 	roomID := event.RoomID()
 
 	// Process the event according to its type
@@ -125,7 +131,7 @@ func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) UpdateRoomFromEvent(
 	case "m.room.create":
 		return d.statements.insertNewRoom(roomID)
 	case "m.room.member":
-		return d.updateNumJoinedUsers(event, eventsToRemove, roomID)
+		return d.updateNumJoinedUsers(event, false)
 	case "m.room.aliases":
 		return d.updateRoomAliases(event, roomID)
 	case "m.room.canonical_alias":
@@ -167,34 +173,27 @@ func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) UpdateRoomFromEvent(
 }
 
 // updateNumJoinedUsers updates the number of joined user in the database representation
-// of the room identified by a given room ID, using a given Matrix event.
-// If the event's membership is "join", increments the value if the event isn't an update,
-// if not, decrements it.
+// of the room identified by a given room ID, using a given "m.room.member" Matrix event.
+// If the membership property of the event isn't "join", ignores it and returs nil.
+// If the remove parameter is set to false, increments the joined members counter in the
+// database, if set to truem decrements it.
 // Returns an error if the update failed.
 func (d *PublicRoomsServerDatabase) updateNumJoinedUsers(
-	membershipEvent gomatrixserverlib.Event, eventsToRemove []gomatrixserverlib.Event, roomID string,
+	membershipEvent gomatrixserverlib.Event, remove bool,
 ) error {
 	membership, err := membershipEvent.Membership()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	if membership == "join" {
-		for _, event := range eventsToRemove {
-			if event.Type() == "m.room.member" {
-				// This is an update for an user who already joined the room, most
-				// likely triggered by a profile update. We don't increment the
-				// number of joined member in this case because we already counted
-				// this user.
-				return nil
-			}
-		}
-		return d.statements.incrementJoinedMembersInRoom(roomID)
-	} else if membership == "leave" || membership == "ban" {
-		return d.statements.decrementJoinedMembersInRoom(roomID)
-	} else {
+	if membership != "join" {
 		return nil
 	}
+
+	if remove {
+		return d.statements.decrementJoinedMembersInRoom(membershipEvent.RoomID())
+	}
+	return d.statements.incrementJoinedMembersInRoom(membershipEvent.RoomID())
 }
 
 // updateStringAttribute updates a given string attribute in the database