diff --git a/src/lightning_app/components/multi_node/base.py b/src/lightning_app/components/multi_node/base.py
index 5662442b7375a..ac99abecff028 100644
--- a/src/lightning_app/components/multi_node/base.py
+++ b/src/lightning_app/components/multi_node/base.py
@@ -56,12 +56,12 @@ def run(
         """
         super().__init__()
         if num_nodes > 1 and not is_running_in_cloud():
-            num_nodes = 1
             warnings.warn(
                 f"You set {type(self).__name__}(num_nodes={num_nodes}, ...)` but this app is running locally."
                 " We assume you are debugging and will ignore the `num_nodes` argument."
                 " To run on multiple nodes in the cloud, launch your app with `--cloud`."
             )
+            num_nodes = 1
         self.ws = structures.List(
             *[
                 work_cls(
diff --git a/tests/tests_app/components/multi_node/test_base.py b/tests/tests_app/components/multi_node/test_base.py
index 8582047a2ff20..8fd4f28e679a0 100644
--- a/tests/tests_app/components/multi_node/test_base.py
+++ b/tests/tests_app/components/multi_node/test_base.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ class Work(LightningWork):
         def run(self):
             pass
 
-    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match=escape("You set MultiNode(num_nodes=1, ...)` but ")):
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match=escape("You set MultiNode(num_nodes=2, ...)` but ")):
         MultiNode(Work, num_nodes=2, cloud_compute=CloudCompute("gpu"))
 
     with no_warning_call(UserWarning, match=escape("You set MultiNode(num_nodes=1, ...)` but ")):