diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/art3d.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/art3d.py
index 34b616eac767..7777b66c14de 100644
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/art3d.py
+++ b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/art3d.py
@@ -583,7 +583,7 @@ def set_3d_properties(self):
         # just in case it is a scalarmappable with a colormap.
         self.update_scalarmappable()
         self._sort_zpos = None
-        self.set_zsort(True)
+        self.set_zsort('average')
         self._facecolors3d = PolyCollection.get_facecolor(self)
         self._edgecolors3d = PolyCollection.get_edgecolor(self)
         self._alpha3d = PolyCollection.get_alpha(self)