diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 505b3c57d..63da5544d 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -27,5 +27,3 @@ repos:
   hooks:
   - id: pyupgrade
     args: [--py38-plus, --keep-runtime-typing]
-    # scrapy/__init__.py has a sys.version_info check we want to keep
-    exclude: scrapy/__init__.py
diff --git a/scrapy/__init__.py b/scrapy/__init__.py
index cc0e539c4..1c1a5c2cc 100644
--- a/scrapy/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/__init__.py
@@ -33,12 +33,6 @@ version_info = tuple(int(v) if v.isdigit() else v for v in __version__.split("."
 twisted_version = (_txv.major, _txv.minor, _txv.micro)
 
 
-# Check minimum required Python version
-if sys.version_info < (3, 8):
-    print(f"Scrapy {__version__} requires Python 3.8+")
-    sys.exit(1)
-
-
 # Ignore noisy twisted deprecation warnings
 warnings.filterwarnings("ignore", category=DeprecationWarning, module="twisted")