diff --git a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
index 0cf3067d48e..04cd599f092 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 module Gitlab
   module CycleAnalytics
     class Events
+      include ActionView::Helpers::DateHelper
+
       def initialize(project:, from:)
         @project = project
         @from = from
@@ -8,7 +10,9 @@ module Gitlab
       end
 
       def issue_events
-        @fetcher.fetch_issues
+        @fetcher.fetch_issues.each do |event|
+          event['issue_diff'] = distance_of_time_in_words(event['issue_diff'].to_f)
+        end
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
index eb3cf9f2476..14405f1356a 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_fetcher.rb
@@ -13,10 +13,10 @@ module Gitlab
         diff_fn = subtract_datetimes_diff(base_query, issue_table[:created_at], metric_attributes)
 
         query = base_query.join(user_table).on(issue_table[:author_id].eq(user_table[:id])).
-          project(diff_fn.as('issue_diff'), *issue_projections).
+          project(extract_epoch(diff_fn).as('issue_diff'), *issue_projections).
           order(issue_table[:created_at].desc)
 
-        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query.to_sql).first
+        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query.to_sql)
       end
 
       def metric_attributes
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ module Gitlab
       def user_table
         User.arel_table
       end
+
+      def extract_epoch(arel_attribute)
+        Arel.sql(%Q{EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (#{arel_attribute.to_sql}))})
+      end
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
index b32c4d6baa0..543259f7cc2 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/cycle_analytics/events_spec.rb
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@ describe Gitlab::CycleAnalytics::Events do
   end
 
   describe '#issue' do
-    let!(:context) { create(:issue, project: project) }
+    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("-00:00:00.339259")
+      expect(subject.issue_events['issue_diff']).to eq('2 days ago')
     end
 
     it 'has a title' do
@@ -23,11 +23,11 @@ describe Gitlab::CycleAnalytics::Events do
     end
 
     it 'has an iid' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['iid']).to eq(context.iid)
+      expect(subject.issue_events['iid']).to eq(context.iid.to_s)
     end
 
     it 'has a created_at timestamp' do
-      expect(subject.issue_events['created_at']).to eq(context.created_at)
+      expect(subject.issue_events['created_at']).to eq('2 days ago')
     end
 
     it "has the author's name" do