diff --git a/src/detect.c b/src/detect.c
index beefebcc61..2cdcfa7ab4 100644
--- a/src/detect.c
+++ b/src/detect.c
@@ -833,7 +833,6 @@ static DetectRunScratchpad DetectRunSetup(
 #ifdef UNITTESTS
     p->alerts.cnt = 0;
 #endif
-    det_ctx->ticker++;
     det_ctx->filestore_cnt = 0;
     det_ctx->base64_decoded_len = 0;
     det_ctx->raw_stream_progress = 0;
diff --git a/src/detect.h b/src/detect.h
index 3cd601878d..0ee3842757 100644
--- a/src/detect.h
+++ b/src/detect.h
@@ -1005,9 +1005,6 @@ typedef struct DetectEngineThreadCtx_ {
      *        on this being the first member */
     uint32_t tenant_id;
 
-    /** ticker that is incremented once per packet. */
-    uint64_t ticker;
-
     /* the thread to which this detection engine thread belongs */
     ThreadVars *tv;