diff --git a/src/_pytest/__init__.py b/src/_pytest/__init__.py
index 46c7827ed5e..f7765ca66ed 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/__init__.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/__init__.py
@@ -1,8 +1,47 @@
 __all__ = ["__version__"]
 
+import re
+from typing import Tuple
+
 try:
     from ._version import version as __version__
 except ImportError:
     # broken installation, we don't even try
     # unknown only works because we do poor mans version compare
     __version__ = "unknown"
+
+
+def version_tuple() -> Tuple[int, int, int, str, str]:
+    """
+    Return a tuple containing the components of this pytest version:
+     (*major*, *minor*, *patch*, *release candidate*, *dev hash*).
+
+    Useful for plugins to handle multiple pytest versions when there are incompatibilities
+    at the plugin level, without parsing the version manually.
+    """
+    return parse_version(__version__)
+
+
+_VERSION_RE = re.compile(
+    r"""
+    (?P<major>\d+)
+    \.
+    (?P<minor>\d+)
+    \.
+    (?P<patch>\d+)
+    (?P<rc>rc\d+)?
+    (\.(?P<dev>.*))?
+    """,
+    re.VERBOSE,
+)
+
+
+def parse_version(version: str) -> Tuple[int, int, int, str, str]:
+    m = _VERSION_RE.match(version)
+    assert m is not None, "internal error parsing version {}".format(version)
+    major = int(m.group("major"))
+    minor = int(m.group("minor"))
+    patch = int(m.group("patch"))
+    rc = m.group("rc") or ""
+    dev = m.group("dev") or ""
+    return major, minor, patch, rc, dev
diff --git a/src/pytest/__init__.py b/src/pytest/__init__.py
index c4c28191877..5ea63bdc13d 100644
--- a/src/pytest/__init__.py
+++ b/src/pytest/__init__.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 """pytest: unit and functional testing with Python."""
 from . import collect
 from _pytest import __version__
+from _pytest import version_tuple
 from _pytest.assertion import register_assert_rewrite
 from _pytest.config import cmdline
 from _pytest.config import console_main
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@
 
 __all__ = [
     "__version__",
+    "version_tuple",
     "_fillfuncargs",
     "approx",
     "Class",
diff --git a/testing/test_meta.py b/testing/test_meta.py
index 7ab8951a015..5f3f161d44d 100644
--- a/testing/test_meta.py
+++ b/testing/test_meta.py
@@ -33,3 +33,21 @@ def test_no_warnings(module: str) -> None:
         "-c", "__import__({!r})".format(module),
     ))
     # fmt: on
+
+
+def test_version_tuple():
+    fields = pytest.__version__.split(".")
+    assert pytest.version_tuple()[:2] == (int(fields[0]), int(fields[1]))
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "v, expected",
+    [
+        ("6.0.0", (6, 0, 0, "", "")),
+        ("6.0.0rc1", (6, 0, 0, "rc1", "")),
+        ("6.23.1.dev39+ga", (6, 23, 1, "", "dev39+ga")),
+        ("6.23.1rc2.dev39+ga", (6, 23, 1, "rc2", "dev39+ga")),
+    ],
+)
+def test_passe_version_tuple(v, expected):
+    assert _pytest.parse_version(v) == expected