diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry/registry.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry/registry.go
index 386df2be858..ed0f1c348b4 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry/registry.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry/registry.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ var (
 func init() {
 	RawMustRegister(collectors.NewProcessCollector(collectors.ProcessCollectorOpts{}))
 	RawMustRegister(collectors.NewGoCollector(collectors.WithGoCollectorRuntimeMetrics(collectors.MetricsAll)))
+	defaultRegistry.RegisterMetaMetrics()
 }
 
 // Handler returns an HTTP handler for the DefaultGatherer. It is
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/registry.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/registry.go
index c0eafeaefe2..af7d1b8bffd 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/registry.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/registry.go
@@ -155,6 +155,8 @@ type KubeRegistry interface {
 	// Reset invokes the Reset() function on all items in the registry
 	// which are added as resettables.
 	Reset()
+	// RegisterMetaMetrics registers metrics about the number of registered metrics.
+	RegisterMetaMetrics()
 }
 
 // kubeRegistry is a wrapper around a prometheus registry-type object. Upon initialization
@@ -359,8 +361,11 @@ func newKubeRegistry(v apimachineryversion.Info) *kubeRegistry {
 // NewKubeRegistry creates a new vanilla Registry
 func NewKubeRegistry() KubeRegistry {
 	r := newKubeRegistry(BuildVersion())
+	return r
+}
+
+func (r *kubeRegistry) RegisterMetaMetrics() {
 	r.MustRegister(registeredMetrics)
 	r.MustRegister(disabledMetricsTotal)
 	r.MustRegister(hiddenMetricsTotal)
-	return r
 }