diff --git a/internal/dashboard/service.go b/internal/dashboard/service.go
index 2bdef2a..6487cb2 100644
--- a/internal/dashboard/service.go
+++ b/internal/dashboard/service.go
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ const (
 	summaryCacheTTL           = 60 * time.Second
 	statisticsCacheTTL        = 5 * time.Minute
 	statisticsStaleGraceTTL   = 15 * time.Minute
+	// statisticsColdLoadWait bounds how long a cold-cache request waits for a fresh
+	// load before falling back to a placeholder. Mongo-only loads (MinIO scope
+	// already cached) comfortably finish within this window; a first-ever MinIO
+	// bucket scan does not, so we don't block the request for that.
+	statisticsColdLoadWait = 4 * time.Second
 )
 
 // Service defines dashboard business operations.
@@ -224,13 +229,33 @@ func (s *service) Statistics(ctx context.Context, query StatisticsQuery) (*Stati
 	}
 
 	// Cold cache: the underlying load performs a full MinIO bucket scan plus Mongo
-	// aggregations that can take minutes. Never block the request on it. Kick off a
-	// background refresh (deduped via singleflight) and serve an empty report so the
-	// endpoint stays fast; subsequent requests get full data once the cache warms.
-	go s.refreshStatistics(days)
-	s.logger.Info("Serving placeholder dashboard statistics while cache warms", map[string]interface{}{
-		"days": days,
-	})
+	// aggregations that can take minutes on a first run. Start the load in the
+	// background (deduped via singleflight, and detached from this request's
+	// context so it keeps running even if we give up waiting) and wait briefly for
+	// it. If it finishes in time we return real data; otherwise we serve a
+	// placeholder so the endpoint stays fast, and the load keeps warming the cache
+	// for the next request.
+	resultCh := make(chan *StatisticsReportResponse, 1)
+	go func() {
+		result, err := s.loadStatistics(context.Background(), days)
+		if err != nil {
+			resultCh <- nil
+			return
+		}
+		resultCh <- result
+	}()
+
+	select {
+	case result := <-resultCh:
+		if result != nil {
+			return result, nil
+		}
+	case <-time.After(statisticsColdLoadWait):
+		s.logger.Info("Serving placeholder dashboard statistics while cache warms", map[string]interface{}{
+			"days": days,
+		})
+	}
+
 	return emptyStatisticsReport(days), nil
 }