diff --git a/core/core-ui.el b/core/core-ui.el
index 2fcc7af02..b9d55663f 100644
--- a/core/core-ui.el
+++ b/core/core-ui.el
@@ -234,6 +234,10 @@ DEFAULT is non-nil, set the default mode-line for all buffers."
 (add-hook 'completion-list-mode-hook #'hide-mode-line-mode)
 (add-hook 'Man-mode-hook #'hide-mode-line-mode)
 
+;; `highlight-numbers-mode' -- better number literal fontification in code
+(setq highlight-numbers-generic-regexp "\\_<[[:digit:]]+.*\\_>")
+(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook #'highlight-numbers-mode)
+
 ;; `rainbow-delimiters' Helps us distinguish stacked delimiter pairs. Especially
 ;; in parentheses-drunk languages like Lisp.
 (def-package! rainbow-delimiters
@@ -736,7 +740,6 @@ windows, switch to `doom-fallback-buffer'. Otherwise, delegate to original
   (run-hook-wrapped 'doom-init-ui-hook #'doom-try-run-hook))
 
 (add-hook 'doom-post-init-hook #'doom|init-ui)
-(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook #'highlight-numbers-mode)
 
 (provide 'core-ui)
 ;;; core-ui.el ends here