diff --git a/log4j-core-test/src/test/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactoryTest.java b/log4j-core-test/src/test/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactoryTest.java
index 8a21114e6fc..2a232df836e 100644
--- a/log4j-core-test/src/test/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactoryTest.java
+++ b/log4j-core-test/src/test/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactoryTest.java
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ void testCreateDiscardingRouterDefaultThresholdLevelInfo() {
                 AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.PROPERTY_NAME_ASYNC_EVENT_ROUTER,
                 AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.PROPERTY_VALUE_DISCARDING_ASYNC_EVENT_ROUTER);
         assertEquals(
-                Level.INFO,
+                Level.ERROR,
                 ((DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy) AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.create()).getThresholdLevel());
     }
 
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ void testCreateDiscardingRouterCaseInsensitive() {
                 AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.PROPERTY_NAME_ASYNC_EVENT_ROUTER,
                 toRootLowerCase(AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.PROPERTY_VALUE_DISCARDING_ASYNC_EVENT_ROUTER));
         assertEquals(
-                Level.INFO,
+                Level.ERROR,
                 ((DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy) AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.create()).getThresholdLevel());
     }
 
diff --git a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.java b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.java
index c8c0fd44d46..e84945369c7 100644
--- a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.java
+++ b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/async/AsyncQueueFullPolicyFactory.java
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@
  * Property {@code "log4j2.AsyncQueueFullPolicy"} controls the routing behaviour. If this property is not specified or has
  * value {@code "Default"}, this factory creates {@link DefaultAsyncQueueFullPolicy} objects.
  * </p> <p>
- * If this property has value {@code "Discard"}, this factory creates {@link DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy} objects.
- * By default, this router discards events of level {@code INFO}, {@code DEBUG} and {@code TRACE} if the queue is full.
- * This can be adjusted with property {@code "log4j2.DiscardThreshold"} (name of the level at which to start
- * discarding).
+ * If this property has value {@code "Discard"}, this factory creates {@link DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy} objects. By
+ * default, this router discards events of level {@code ERROR}, {@code WARN}, {@code INFO}, {@code DEBUG} and {@code
+ * TRACE} if the queue is full. This can be adjusted with property {@code "log4j2.DiscardThreshold"} (name of the level
+ * at which to start discarding).
  * </p> <p>
  * For any other value, this
  * factory interprets the value as the fully qualified name of a class implementing the {@link AsyncQueueFullPolicy}
@@ -104,8 +104,8 @@ private static AsyncQueueFullPolicy createCustomRouter(final String router) {
 
     private static AsyncQueueFullPolicy createDiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy() {
         final PropertiesUtil util = PropertiesUtil.getProperties();
-        final String level = util.getStringProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DISCARDING_THRESHOLD_LEVEL, Level.INFO.name());
-        final Level thresholdLevel = Level.toLevel(level, Level.INFO);
+        final String level = util.getStringProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DISCARDING_THRESHOLD_LEVEL, Level.ERROR.name());
+        final Level thresholdLevel = Level.toLevel(level, Level.ERROR);
         LOGGER.debug("Creating custom DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy(discardThreshold:{})", thresholdLevel);
         return new DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy(thresholdLevel);
     }
diff --git a/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3880-default-discard-threshold.xml b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3880-default-discard-threshold.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ce13fb959b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3880-default-discard-threshold.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<entry xmlns="https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns"
+       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+       xsi:schemaLocation="
+           https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns
+           https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns/log4j-changelog-0.xsd"
+       type="fixed">
+  <issue id="3880" link="https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/3880"/>
+  <description format="asciidoc">
+    Raise the async logger's default discard threshold to ERROR. This is intended to improve application resilience in the event of a full or failing disk.
+  </description>
+</entry>