diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b312fb2..cce811c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS 1)
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-Og")
 
 # release optimizations
-set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-O2")
+set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "-O2")
 
 # generally useful
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-Wall -pedantic -Wextra -Wfloat-equal -Wundef -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-align -Wstrict-overflow=2 -Wunreachable-code -fsanitize=address,undefined -g3")