diff --git a/yt_dlp/options.py b/yt_dlp/options.py
index 38e30f7c6..5549e1302 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/options.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/options.py
@@ -412,7 +412,10 @@ def _alias_callback(option, opt_str, value, parser, opts, nargs):
         '--plugin-dirs',
         metavar='PATH',
         dest='plugin_dirs',
-        action='append',
+        action='callback',
+        callback=_list_from_options_callback,
+        type='str',
+        callback_kwargs={'delim': None},
         default=['default'],
         help=(
             'Path to an additional directory to search for plugins. '