diff --git a/.changeset/big-carrots-raise.md b/.changeset/big-carrots-raise.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1f3d212836
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/big-carrots-raise.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/package-requester": patch
+"pnpm": patch
+---
+
+Don't fail when the version of a package in the store is not a semver version.
diff --git a/packages/package-requester/src/equalOrSemverEqual.ts b/packages/package-requester/src/equalOrSemverEqual.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a96561e7a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/package-requester/src/equalOrSemverEqual.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+import semver from 'semver'
+
+export default function equalOrSemverEqual (version1: string, version2: string): boolean {
+  if (version1 === version2) return true
+  try {
+    return semver.eq(version1, version2, { loose: true })
+  } catch (err) {
+    return false
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/package-requester/src/packageRequester.ts b/packages/package-requester/src/packageRequester.ts
index f46a166d0b..de3d8ef699 100644
--- a/packages/package-requester/src/packageRequester.ts
+++ b/packages/package-requester/src/packageRequester.ts
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import pick from 'ramda/src/pick'
 import renameOverwrite from 'rename-overwrite'
 import semver from 'semver'
 import ssri from 'ssri'
+import equalOrSemverEqual from './equalOrSemverEqual'
 import safeDeferredPromise from './safeDeferredPromise'
 
 const TARBALL_INTEGRITY_FILENAME = 'tarball-integrity'
@@ -446,7 +447,7 @@ function fetchToStore (
               // So it may happen that the version will be in different formats.
               // For instance, v1.0.0 and 1.0.0
               // Hence, we need to use semver.eq() to compare them.
-              !semver.eq(pkgFilesIndex.version, opts.pkg.version, { loose: true })
+              !equalOrSemverEqual(pkgFilesIndex.version, opts.pkg.version)
             )
           ) {
             /* eslint-disable @typescript-eslint/restrict-template-expressions */
diff --git a/packages/package-requester/test/equalOrSemverEqual.test.ts b/packages/package-requester/test/equalOrSemverEqual.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8003e45e91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/package-requester/test/equalOrSemverEqual.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+import equalOrSemverEqual from '@pnpm/package-requester/lib/equalOrSemverEqual'
+
+test('equalOrSemverEqual()', () => {
+  expect(equalOrSemverEqual('a', 'a')).toBeTruthy()
+  expect(equalOrSemverEqual('a', 'b')).toBeFalsy()
+  expect(equalOrSemverEqual('1.0.0', 'v1.0.0')).toBeTruthy()
+})