diff --git a/lib/outdated.js b/lib/outdated.js
index 794197cfc6a69..5b84ae35587c8 100644
--- a/lib/outdated.js
+++ b/lib/outdated.js
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ function outdated (args, silent, cb) {
   var dir = path.resolve(npm.dir, '..')
 
   // default depth for `outdated` is 0 (cf. `ls`)
-  if (opts.depth) opts = opts.concat({depth: 0})
+  if (opts.depth === Infinity) opts = opts.concat({depth: 0})
 
   readPackageTree(dir, andComputeMetadata(function (er, tree) {
     if (!tree) return cb(er)