diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 73b3477b623c..0d2da0bb1818 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -620,7 +620,7 @@ def find_lib(lib, arch, libc):
             "excludes": ["numpy", "Cython", "PySide2", "PIL",
                          "pandas"],
             "zip_include_packages": ["*"],
-            "zip_exclude_packages": ["worlds", "sc2"],
+            "zip_exclude_packages": ["worlds", "sc2", "orjson"],  # TODO: remove orjson here once we drop py3.8 support
             "include_files": [],  # broken in cx 6.14.0, we use more special sauce now
             "include_msvcr": False,
             "replace_paths": ["*."],