diff --git a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.aggregation/280_rare_terms.yml b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.aggregation/280_rare_terms.yml
index a82caddd9cfd4..04d76a987809d 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.aggregation/280_rare_terms.yml
+++ b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.aggregation/280_rare_terms.yml
@@ -313,4 +313,50 @@ setup:
   - match: { hits.total.value: 1 }
   - length: { aggregations.long_terms.buckets: 0 }
 
+---
+"sub aggs":
+  - skip:
+      version: " - 7.99.99"
+      reason: Sub aggs fixed in 8.0 (to be backported to 7.6.1)
+
+  - do:
+      index:
+        refresh: true
+        index: test_1
+        id: 1
+        body: { "str" : "abc", "number": 1 }
 
+  - do:
+      index:
+        refresh: true
+        index: test_1
+        id: 2
+        body: { "str": "abc", "number": 2 }
+
+  - do:
+      index:
+        refresh: true
+        index: test_1
+        id: 3
+        body: { "str": "bcd", "number": 3 }
+
+  - do:
+      search:
+        body:
+          size: 0
+          aggs:
+            str_terms:
+              rare_terms:
+                field: str
+                max_doc_count: 1
+              aggs:
+                max_n:
+                  max:
+                    field: number
+
+  - match: { hits.total.value: 3 }
+  - length: { aggregations.str_terms.buckets: 1 }
+  - match: { aggregations.str_terms.buckets.0.key: "bcd" }
+  - is_false: aggregations.str_terms.buckets.0.key_as_string
+  - match: { aggregations.str_terms.buckets.0.doc_count: 1 }
+  - match: { aggregations.str_terms.buckets.0.max_n.value: 3.0 }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/AbstractRareTermsAggregator.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/AbstractRareTermsAggregator.java
index 2bbe3c01988df..bacc2ef217004 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/AbstractRareTermsAggregator.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/AbstractRareTermsAggregator.java
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractRareTermsAggregator<T extends ValuesSource,
     protected final U includeExclude;
 
     MergingBucketsDeferringCollector deferringCollector;
-    LeafBucketCollector subCollectors;
     final SetBackedScalingCuckooFilter filter;
 
     AbstractRareTermsAggregator(String name, AggregatorFactories factories, SearchContext context,
@@ -115,14 +114,14 @@ private String descendsFromNestedAggregator(Aggregator parent) {
         return null;
     }
 
-    protected void doCollect(V val, int docId) throws IOException {
+    protected void doCollect(LeafBucketCollector subCollector, V val, int docId) throws IOException {
         long bucketOrdinal = addValueToOrds(val);
 
         if (bucketOrdinal < 0) { // already seen
             bucketOrdinal = -1 - bucketOrdinal;
-            collectExistingBucket(subCollectors, docId, bucketOrdinal);
+            collectExistingBucket(subCollector, docId, bucketOrdinal);
         } else {
-            collectBucket(subCollectors, docId, bucketOrdinal);
+            collectBucket(subCollector, docId, bucketOrdinal);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/LongRareTermsAggregator.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/LongRareTermsAggregator.java
index b1d294fefdcf6..7c79e2db6b832 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/LongRareTermsAggregator.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/LongRareTermsAggregator.java
@@ -64,9 +64,6 @@ protected SortedNumericDocValues getValues(ValuesSource.Numeric valuesSource, Le
     public LeafBucketCollector getLeafCollector(LeafReaderContext ctx,
                                                 final LeafBucketCollector sub) throws IOException {
         final SortedNumericDocValues values = getValues(valuesSource, ctx);
-        if (subCollectors == null) {
-            subCollectors = sub;
-        }
         return new LeafBucketCollectorBase(sub, values) {
 
             @Override
@@ -78,7 +75,7 @@ public void collect(int docId, long owningBucketOrdinal) throws IOException {
                         final long val = values.nextValue();
                         if (previous != val || i == 0) {
                             if ((includeExclude == null) || (includeExclude.accept(val))) {
-                                doCollect(val, docId);
+                                doCollect(sub, val, docId);
                             }
                             previous = val;
                         }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/StringRareTermsAggregator.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/StringRareTermsAggregator.java
index 0c200e96b242c..29bb46140ec4b 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/StringRareTermsAggregator.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/StringRareTermsAggregator.java
@@ -60,9 +60,6 @@ public class StringRareTermsAggregator extends AbstractRareTermsAggregator<Value
     public LeafBucketCollector getLeafCollector(LeafReaderContext ctx,
                                                 final LeafBucketCollector sub) throws IOException {
         final SortedBinaryDocValues values = valuesSource.bytesValues(ctx);
-        if (subCollectors == null) {
-            subCollectors = sub;
-        }
         return new LeafBucketCollectorBase(sub, values) {
             final BytesRefBuilder previous = new BytesRefBuilder();
 
@@ -84,7 +81,7 @@ public void collect(int docId, long bucket) throws IOException {
                             continue;
                         }
 
-                        doCollect(bytes, docId);
+                        doCollect(sub, bytes, docId);
                         previous.copyBytes(bytes);
                     }
                 }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/RareTermsAggregatorTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/RareTermsAggregatorTests.java
index a3b8104814db9..94bb43f3db62c 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/RareTermsAggregatorTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/RareTermsAggregatorTests.java
@@ -562,7 +562,9 @@ private void executeTestCase(boolean reduced, Query query, List<Long> dataset,
         try (Directory directory = newDirectory()) {
             try (RandomIndexWriter indexWriter = new RandomIndexWriter(random(), directory)) {
                 Document document = new Document();
-                for (Long value : dataset) {
+                List<Long> shuffledDataset = new ArrayList<>(dataset);
+                Collections.shuffle(shuffledDataset, random());
+                for (Long value : shuffledDataset) {
                     if (frequently()) {
                         indexWriter.commit();
                     }