diff --git a/public/app/routes/routes.tsx b/public/app/routes/routes.tsx
index 35ecd371283..8f8b482fb47 100644
--- a/public/app/routes/routes.tsx
+++ b/public/app/routes/routes.tsx
@@ -27,10 +27,12 @@ const isDevEnv = config.buildInfo.env === 'development';
 export const extraRoutes: RouteDescriptor[] = [];
 
 export function getAppRoutes(): RouteDescriptor[] {
+  const appPluginRoutes = getAppPluginRoutes();
+
   return [
     // Based on the Grafana configuration standalone plugin pages can even override and extend existing core pages, or they can register new routes under existing ones.
     // In order to make it possible we need to register them first due to how `<Switch>` is evaluating routes. (This will be unnecessary once/when we upgrade to React Router v6 and start using `<Routes>` instead.)
-    ...getAppPluginRoutes(),
+    ...appPluginRoutes,
     {
       path: '/',
       pageClass: 'page-dashboard',
@@ -522,7 +524,8 @@ export function getAppRoutes(): RouteDescriptor[] {
     config.featureToggles.exploreMetrics && {
       path: '/explore/metrics/*',
       roles: () => contextSrv.evaluatePermission([AccessControlAction.DataSourcesExplore]),
-      ...(config.featureToggles.exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin
+      ...(config.featureToggles.exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin &&
+      Boolean(appPluginRoutes.find(({ path }) => path === '/a/grafana-metricsdrilldown-app/*'))
         ? {
             component: SafeDynamicImport(
               () =>