diff --git a/sentry_sdk/scope.py b/sentry_sdk/scope.py
index b4274a4e7c..e6ad86254f 100644
--- a/sentry_sdk/scope.py
+++ b/sentry_sdk/scope.py
@@ -1031,9 +1031,8 @@ def start_transaction(
 
             transaction._profile = profile
 
-        # we don't bother to keep spans if we already know we're not going to
-        # send the transaction
-        if transaction.sampled:
+            # we don't bother to keep spans if we already know we're not going to
+            # send the transaction
             max_spans = (client.options["_experiments"].get("max_spans")) or 1000
             transaction.init_span_recorder(maxlen=max_spans)