diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 5e9257cc..edb4ca13 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: ranger
 Type: Package
 Title: A Fast Implementation of Random Forests
-Version: 0.16.1
+Version: 0.16.2
 Date: 2024-05-16
 Author: Marvin N. Wright [aut, cre], Stefan Wager [ctb], Philipp Probst [ctb]
 Maintainer: Marvin N. Wright <cran@wrig.de>
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 00b3a107..708b2316 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 
+# ranger 0.16.2
+* Add Poisson splitting rule for regression trees
+
 # ranger 0.16.1
 * Set num.threads=2 as default; respect environment variables and options
 * Add hierarchical shrinkage
diff --git a/cpp_version/src/version.h b/cpp_version/src/version.h
index f2280277..673de5f2 100644
--- a/cpp_version/src/version.h
+++ b/cpp_version/src/version.h
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #ifndef RANGER_VERSION
-#define RANGER_VERSION "0.16.1"
+#define RANGER_VERSION "0.16.2"
 #endif