diff --git a/packages/core/src/render3/component.ts b/packages/core/src/render3/component.ts
index b5c47dab4b..16aa53f2a8 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/render3/component.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/render3/component.ts
@@ -217,6 +217,12 @@ export function createRootComponent<T>(
     renderInitialStyles(native, rootTNode.stylingTemplate, componentView[RENDERER]);
   }
 
+  // We want to generate an empty QueryList for root content queries for backwards
+  // compatibility with ViewEngine.
+  if (componentDef.contentQueries) {
+    componentDef.contentQueries(RenderFlags.Create, component, rootView.length - 1);
+  }
+
   return component;
 }
 
diff --git a/packages/core/test/acceptance/query_spec.ts b/packages/core/test/acceptance/query_spec.ts
index 71005714a3..f49ba8edd6 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/acceptance/query_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/acceptance/query_spec.ts
@@ -401,6 +401,17 @@ describe('query logic', () => {
 
   });
 
+  // Some root components may have ContentChildren queries if they are also
+  // usable as a child component. We should still generate an empty QueryList
+  // for these queries when they are at root for backwards compatibility with
+  // ViewEngine.
+  it('should generate an empty QueryList for root components', () => {
+    const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(QueryComp);
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+    expect(fixture.componentInstance.contentChildren).toBeAnInstanceOf(QueryList);
+    expect(fixture.componentInstance.contentChildren.length).toBe(0);
+  });
+
   describe('descendants', () => {
 
     it('should match directives on elements that used to be wrapped by a required parent in HTML parser',