diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2b813b77a55..966129eac21 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="datasets",
-    version="2.6.1.dev0",  # expected format is one of x.y.z.dev0, or x.y.z.rc1 or x.y.z (no to dashes, yes to dots)
+    version="2.6.1",  # expected format is one of x.y.z.dev0, or x.y.z.rc1 or x.y.z (no to dashes, yes to dots)
     description="HuggingFace community-driven open-source library of datasets",
     long_description=open("README.md", encoding="utf-8").read(),
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
diff --git a/src/datasets/__init__.py b/src/datasets/__init__.py
index 01433728869..4d44d0aa60f 100644
--- a/src/datasets/__init__.py
+++ b/src/datasets/__init__.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 # pylint: enable=line-too-long
 # pylint: disable=g-import-not-at-top,g-bad-import-order,wrong-import-position
 
-__version__ = "2.6.1.dev0"
+__version__ = "2.6.1"
 
 import platform