diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
index b22ee19ae68c..02603bdb1904 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
@@ -1549,7 +1549,7 @@ def set_params(self, **kwargs):
     def _raw_ticks(self, vmin, vmax):
         nbins = self._nbins
         if nbins == 'auto':
-            nbins = max(min(self.axis.get_tick_space(), 9), 1)
+            nbins = max(min(self.axis.get_tick_space(), 9), 3)
         scale, offset = scale_range(vmin, vmax, nbins)
         if self._integer:
             scale = max(1, scale)