diff --git a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
index 04cd599f092..d7248b28527 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
@@ -11,9 +11,14 @@ module Gitlab
 
       def issue_events
         @fetcher.fetch_issues.each do |event|
-          event['issue_diff'] = distance_of_time_in_words(event['issue_diff'].to_f)
+          event['issue_diff'] = interval_in_words(event['issue_diff'])
+          event['created_at'] = interval_in_words(event['created_at'])
         end
       end
+
+      def interval_in_words(diff)
+        "#{distance_of_time_in_words( diff.to_f)} ago"
+      end
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
index 14405f1356a..0920ab73ae1 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ module Gitlab
           project(extract_epoch(diff_fn).as('issue_diff'), *issue_projections).
           order(issue_table[:created_at].desc)
 
-        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query.to_sql)
+        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query.to_sql).to_a
       end
 
       def metric_attributes
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
index 543259f7cc2..be62077f01b 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
@@ -15,23 +15,23 @@ describe Gitlab::CycleAnalytics::Events do
     let!(:context) { create(:issue, project: project, created_at: 2.days.ago) }
 
     it 'has an issue diff' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['issue_diff']).to eq('2 days ago')
+      expect(subject.issue_events.first['issue_diff']).to eq('2 days ago')
     end
 
     it 'has a title' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['title']).to eq(context.title)
+      expect(subject.issue_events.first['title']).to eq(context.title)
     end
 
     it 'has an iid' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['iid']).to eq(context.iid.to_s)
+      expect(subject.issue_events.first['iid']).to eq(context.iid.to_s)
     end
 
     it 'has a created_at timestamp' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['created_at']).to eq('2 days ago')
+      expect(subject.issue_events.first['created_at']).to end_with('ago')
     end
 
     it "has the author's name" do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['name']).to eq(context.author.name)
+      expect(subject.issue_events.first['name']).to eq(context.author.name)
     end
   end