diff --git a/Modules/arraymodule.c b/Modules/arraymodule.c
index 36fec5327f7..8e8dce2434a 100644
--- a/Modules/arraymodule.c
+++ b/Modules/arraymodule.c
@@ -1258,6 +1258,7 @@ array_tofile(arrayobject *self, PyObject *f)
 		Py_DECREF(bytes);
 		if (res == NULL)
 			return NULL;
+		Py_DECREF(res); /* drop write result */
 	}
 
   done: