diff --git a/pkg/kube/resource.go b/pkg/kube/resource.go
index d88b171f0..d6d08d589 100644
--- a/pkg/kube/resource.go
+++ b/pkg/kube/resource.go
@@ -79,7 +79,14 @@ func (r ResourceList) Intersect(rs ResourceList) ResourceList {
 	return r.Filter(rs.Contains)
 }
 
-// isMatchingInfo returns true if infos match on Name and GroupVersionKind.
+// isMatchingInfo returns true if infos match on Name, Namespace, Group and Kind.
+//
+// IMPORTANT: Version is intentionally excluded from the comparison. Resources
+// served by the same CRD at different API versions (e.g. v2beta1 vs v2beta2)
+// share the same underlying storage in the Kubernetes API server. Comparing
+// the full GroupVersionKind causes Difference() to treat a version change as
+// a resource removal + addition, which makes Helm delete the resource it just
+// created during upgrades. See https://github.com/helm/helm/issues/31768
 func isMatchingInfo(a, b *resource.Info) bool {
-	return a.Name == b.Name && a.Namespace == b.Namespace && a.Mapping.GroupVersionKind == b.Mapping.GroupVersionKind
+	return a.Name == b.Name && a.Namespace == b.Namespace && a.Mapping.GroupVersionKind.GroupKind() == b.Mapping.GroupVersionKind.GroupKind()
 }
diff --git a/pkg/kube/resource_test.go b/pkg/kube/resource_test.go
index ccc613c1b..41215a878 100644
--- a/pkg/kube/resource_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kube/resource_test.go
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@ func TestIsMatchingInfo(t *testing.T) {
 
 	gvkDiffVersion := schema.GroupVersionKind{Group: "group1", Version: "diff", Kind: "pod"}
 	resourceInfoDiffVersion := resource.Info{Name: "name1", Namespace: "namespace1", Mapping: &meta.RESTMapping{GroupVersionKind: gvkDiffVersion}}
-	if isMatchingInfo(&resourceInfo, &resourceInfoDiffVersion) {
-		t.Error("expected resources not equal")
+	if !isMatchingInfo(&resourceInfo, &resourceInfoDiffVersion) {
+		t.Error("expected resources with different versions but same group and kind to be equal")
 	}
 
 	gvkDiffKind := schema.GroupVersionKind{Group: "group1", Version: "version1", Kind: "deployment"}