diff --git a/pkg/kgo/sink.go b/pkg/kgo/sink.go
index 49bff3b1..d7db8cff 100644
--- a/pkg/kgo/sink.go
+++ b/pkg/kgo/sink.go
@@ -942,6 +942,24 @@ func (s *sink) handleRetryBatches(
 			return
 		}
 
+		// If the request failed due to a concurrent metadata update
+		// moving partitions to a different sink (or killing the sink
+		// this partition was on), we can just reset the drain index
+		// and trigger draining now the new sink. There is no reason
+		// to backoff on this sink nor trigger a metadata update.
+		if batch.owner.sink != s {
+			if debug {
+				logger.Log(LogLevelDebug, "transitioned sinks while a request was inflight, retrying immediately on new sink without backoff",
+					"topic", batch.owner.topic,
+					"partition", batch.owner.partition,
+					"old_sink", s.nodeID,
+					"new_sink", batch.owner.sink.nodeID,
+				)
+			}
+			batch.owner.resetBatchDrainIdx()
+			return
+		}
+
 		if canFail || s.cl.cfg.disableIdempotency {
 			if err := batch.maybeFailErr(&s.cl.cfg); err != nil {
 				batch.owner.failAllRecords(err)
@@ -1003,6 +1021,8 @@ func (s *sink) handleRetryBatches(
 	// If neither of these cases are true, then we entered wanting a
 	// metadata update, but the batches either were not the first batch, or
 	// the batches were concurrently failed.
+	//
+	// If all partitions are moving, we do not need to backoff nor drain.
 	if shouldBackoff || (!updateMeta && numRetryBatches != numMoveBatches) {
 		s.maybeTriggerBackoff(backoffSeq)
 		s.maybeDrain()