diff --git a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
index 136c095b7d..f8b0274752 100644
--- a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
+++ b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
@@ -934,8 +934,14 @@ static void virtio_gpu_gl_block(void *opaque, bool block)
 {
     VirtIOGPU *g = opaque;
 
-    g->renderer_blocked = block;
-    if (!block) {
+    if (block) {
+        g->renderer_blocked++;
+    } else {
+        g->renderer_blocked--;
+    }
+    assert(g->renderer_blocked >= 0);
+
+    if (g->renderer_blocked == 0) {
         virtio_gpu_process_cmdq(g);
     }
 }
diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-gpu.h b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-gpu.h
index 89f4879f55..3dff0c9a76 100644
--- a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-gpu.h
+++ b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-gpu.h
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ typedef struct VirtIOGPU {
 
     bool use_virgl_renderer;
     bool renderer_inited;
-    bool renderer_blocked;
+    int renderer_blocked;
     QEMUTimer *fence_poll;
     QEMUTimer *print_stats;