diff --git a/lib/io/iterate.js b/lib/io/iterate.js
index eb4515e826..1ded0c458a 100644
--- a/lib/io/iterate.js
+++ b/lib/io/iterate.js
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import {on} from 'node:events';
+import {getDefaultHighWaterMark} from 'node:stream';
 import {getEncodingTransformGenerator} from '../transform/encoding-transform.js';
 import {getSplitLinesGenerator} from '../transform/split.js';
 import {transformChunkSync, finalChunksSync} from '../transform/run-sync.js';
@@ -73,8 +74,7 @@ const iterateOnStream = ({stream, controller, binary, shouldEncode, encoding, sh
 	});
 };
 
-// @todo: replace with `getDefaultHighWaterMark(true)` after dropping support for Node <18.17.0
-export const DEFAULT_OBJECT_HIGH_WATER_MARK = 16;
+export const DEFAULT_OBJECT_HIGH_WATER_MARK = getDefaultHighWaterMark(true);
 
 // The `highWaterMark` of `events.on()` is measured in number of events, not in bytes.
 // Not knowing the average amount of bytes per `data` event, we use the same heuristic as streams in objectMode, since they have the same issue.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 6991d0989f..17f02c76c6 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 		"zx"
 	],
 	"dependencies": {
-		"@sindresorhus/merge-streams": "^3.0.0",
+		"@sindresorhus/merge-streams": "^4.0.0",
 		"cross-spawn": "^7.0.3",
 		"figures": "^6.1.0",
 		"get-stream": "^9.0.0",