diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
index b8a0487bc7e..2b498d9ddc9 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, gettext, libnl, ncurses, pciutils
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, fetchpatch, gettext, libnl, ncurses, pciutils
 , pkg-config, zlib, autoreconfHook }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
@@ -12,6 +12,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1zkr2y5nb1nr22nq8a3zli87iyfasfq6489p7h1k428pv8k45w4f";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # Pull upstream patch for ncurses-6.3 compatibility
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "ncurses-6.3.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/fenrus75/powertop/commit/9ef1559a1582f23d599c149601c3a8e06809296c.patch";
+      sha256 = "0qx69f3bwhxgsga9nas8lgrclf1rxvr7fq7fd2n8dv3x4lsb46j1";
+    })
+  ];
+
   outputs = [ "out" "man" ];
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config autoreconfHook ];