diff --git a/src/hyperloglog.c b/src/hyperloglog.c
index c4cb5674d..f5df8fc31 100644
--- a/src/hyperloglog.c
+++ b/src/hyperloglog.c
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ struct hllhdr {
 #define HLL_SPARSE 1 /* Sparse encoding */
 #define HLL_MAX_ENCODING 1
 
-#define HLL_SPARSE_MAX 12000
+#define HLL_SPARSE_MAX 3000
 
 static char *invalid_hll_err = "Corrupted HLL object detected";