diff --git a/src/vs/base/common/event.ts b/src/vs/base/common/event.ts
index 4ab515e5253be..f94fa3673b6e3 100644
--- a/src/vs/base/common/event.ts
+++ b/src/vs/base/common/event.ts
@@ -1065,7 +1065,7 @@ export class Emitter<T> {
 	 */
 	get event(): Event<T> {
 		this._event ??= (callback: (e: T) => any, thisArgs?: any, disposables?: IDisposable[] | DisposableStore) => {
-			if (this._leakageMon && this._size > this._leakageMon.threshold * 3) {
+			if (this._leakageMon && this._size > this._leakageMon.threshold ** 2) {
 				const message = `[${this._leakageMon.name}] REFUSES to accept new listeners because it exceeded its threshold by far (${this._size} vs ${this._leakageMon.threshold})`;
 				console.warn(message);
 
diff --git a/src/vs/base/test/common/event.test.ts b/src/vs/base/test/common/event.test.ts
index 7c33d1f41afdc..161c7085fa6ae 100644
--- a/src/vs/base/test/common/event.test.ts
+++ b/src/vs/base/test/common/event.test.ts
@@ -376,14 +376,14 @@ suite('Event', function () {
 
 		const a = ds.add(new Emitter<undefined>({
 			onListenerError(e) { allError.push(e); },
-			leakWarningThreshold: 1,
+			leakWarningThreshold: 3,
 		}));
 
-		for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
+		for (let i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
 			a.event(() => { }, undefined, store);
 		}
 
-		assert.deepStrictEqual(allError.length, 4);
+		assert.deepStrictEqual(allError.length, 5);
 		const [start, tail] = tail2(allError);
 		assert.ok(tail instanceof ListenerRefusalError);