diff --git a/.changeset/fluffy-insects-jump.md b/.changeset/fluffy-insects-jump.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8b1c49ad9d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/fluffy-insects-jump.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/plugin-commands-publishing": patch
+"pnpm": patch
+---
+
+`pnpm publish <tarball path>` should exit with non-0 exit code when publish fails [#5396](https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/issues/5396).
diff --git a/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/src/publish.ts b/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/src/publish.ts
index 823de782617..70666ad6131 100644
--- a/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/src/publish.ts
+++ b/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/src/publish.ts
@@ -162,8 +162,8 @@ Do you want to continue?`,
     return
   }
   if ((params.length > 0) && params[0].endsWith('.tgz')) {
-    runNpm(opts.npmPath, ['publish', ...params])
-    return
+    const { status } = runNpm(opts.npmPath, ['publish', ...params])
+    return { exitCode: status ?? 0 }
   }
   const dirInParams = (params.length > 0) && params[0]
   const dir = dirInParams || opts.dir || process.cwd()
diff --git a/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/test/publish.ts b/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/test/publish.ts
index 0ead0720ee5..26acd04e073 100644
--- a/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/test/publish.ts
+++ b/releasing/plugin-commands-publishing/test/publish.ts
@@ -708,3 +708,21 @@ test('publish: with specified publish branch name', async () => {
     publishBranch: branch,
   }, [])
 })
+
+test('publish: exit with non-zero code when publish tgz', async () => {
+  prepare({
+    name: 'test-publish-package.json',
+    version: '0.0.2',
+  })
+
+  const result = await publish.handler({
+    ...DEFAULT_OPTS,
+    argv: { original: ['publish', './non-exists.tgz', '--no-git-checks'] },
+    dir: process.cwd(),
+    gitChecks: false,
+
+  }, [
+    './non-exists.tgz',
+  ])
+  expect(result?.exitCode).not.toBe(0)
+})