diff --git a/app/controllers/post_readers_controller.rb b/app/controllers/post_readers_controller.rb
index 392f575c9b..e70d49b216 100644
--- a/app/controllers/post_readers_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/post_readers_controller.rb
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ class PostReadersController < ApplicationController
 
     readers = User
       .joins(:topic_users)
+      .where(staged: false)
       .where.not(topic_users: { last_read_post_number: nil })
       .where('topic_users.topic_id = ? AND topic_users.last_read_post_number >= ?', post.topic_id, post.post_number)
       .where.not(id: post.user_id)
diff --git a/spec/requests/post_readers_controller_spec.rb b/spec/requests/post_readers_controller_spec.rb
index 267dfea110..954e14b6f3 100644
--- a/spec/requests/post_readers_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/post_readers_controller_spec.rb
@@ -66,6 +66,16 @@ describe PostReadersController do
 
         expect(readers).to be_empty
       end
+
+      it "doesn't include staged users" do
+        TopicUser.create!(user: reader, topic: @group_message, last_read_post_number: 4)
+        reader.update(staged: true)
+
+        get '/post_readers.json', params: { id: @post.id }
+        readers = JSON.parse(response.body)['post_readers']
+
+        expect(readers).to be_empty
+      end
     end
 
     def assert_reader_is_correctly_serialized(reader_data, reader, post)