diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c b/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
index 87f5b1a4a7fa..833405c27dae 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ static int perf_session__list_build_ids(bool force, bool with_hits)
 	if (!perf_header__has_feat(&session->header, HEADER_BUILD_ID))
 		with_hits = true;
 
+	if (zstd_init(&(session->zstd_data), 0) < 0)
+		pr_warning("Decompression initialization failed. Reported data may be incomplete.\n");
+
 	/*
 	 * in pipe-mode, the only way to get the buildids is to parse
 	 * the record stream. Buildids are stored as RECORD_HEADER_BUILD_ID