diff --git a/src/profiler/profile-generator.h b/src/profiler/profile-generator.h
index 38b3c713de6..20ce4bf54b9 100644
--- a/src/profiler/profile-generator.h
+++ b/src/profiler/profile-generator.h
@@ -237,8 +237,10 @@ class CodeEntry {
   size_t DecRef() {
     DCHECK(is_ref_counted());
     DCHECK_GT(ref_count_, 0UL);
-    ref_count_--;
-    return ref_count_;
+    // Use the return value of the atomic RMW directly. The previous code did
+    // `ref_count_--; return ref_count_;` which is two separate atomic ops and
+    // allows two concurrent callers from refcount=2 to both observe 0.
+    return ref_count_.fetch_sub(1, std::memory_order_acq_rel) - 1;
   }
 
   using EventField = base::BitField<LogEventListener::Event, 0, 4>;