diff --git a/.changeset/polite-buckets-watch.md b/.changeset/polite-buckets-watch.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1d538df577
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/polite-buckets-watch.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/npm-resolver": patch
+---
+
+Return the lowest version when `pickLowestVersion` is `true` and the only versions in the metadata are prerelease versions.
diff --git a/resolving/npm-resolver/src/pickPackageFromMeta.ts b/resolving/npm-resolver/src/pickPackageFromMeta.ts
index d4c8b12a89..4e91332a98 100644
--- a/resolving/npm-resolver/src/pickPackageFromMeta.ts
+++ b/resolving/npm-resolver/src/pickPackageFromMeta.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ export function pickLowestVersionByVersionRange (
   meta: PackageMeta,
   versionRange: string
 ) {
+  if (versionRange === '*') {
+    return Object.keys(meta.versions).sort(semver.compare)[0]
+  }
   return semver.minSatisfying(Object.keys(meta.versions), versionRange, true)
 }
 
diff --git a/resolving/npm-resolver/test/index.ts b/resolving/npm-resolver/test/index.ts
index 22513d75bd..837057930a 100644
--- a/resolving/npm-resolver/test/index.ts
+++ b/resolving/npm-resolver/test/index.ts
@@ -1794,3 +1794,36 @@ test('resolveFromNpm() should normalize the registry', async () => {
   expect(resolveResult!.manifest!.name).toBe('is-positive')
   expect(resolveResult!.manifest!.version).toBe('1.0.0')
 })
+
+test('pick lowest version by * when there are only prerelease versions', async () => {
+  nock(registry)
+    .get('/is-positive')
+    .reply(200, {
+      versions: {
+        '1.0.0-alpha.1': {
+          name: 'is-positive',
+          version: '1.0.0-alpha.1',
+          dist: {
+            tarball: 'https://registry.npmjs.org/is-positive/-/is-positive-1.0.0-alpha.1.tgz',
+          },
+        },
+      },
+      'dist-tags': {
+        latest: '1.0.0-alpha.1',
+      },
+    })
+
+  const cacheDir = tempy.directory()
+  const resolve = createResolveFromNpm({
+    cacheDir,
+  })
+  const resolveResult = await resolve({ alias: 'is-positive', pref: '*' }, {
+    pickLowestVersion: true,
+    registry,
+  })
+
+  expect(resolveResult!.resolvedVia).toBe('npm-registry')
+  expect(resolveResult!.id).toBe('registry.npmjs.org/is-positive/1.0.0-alpha.1')
+  expect(resolveResult!.manifest!.name).toBe('is-positive')
+  expect(resolveResult!.manifest!.version).toBe('1.0.0-alpha.1')
+})