diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6c444cd08f..3e5ba492ef 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 
 # ggplot2 (development version)
 
+* Fixed performance loss when the `.data` pronoun is used in `aes()` (#5730).
 * Fixed bug where discrete scales could not map aesthetics only consisting of
   `NA`s (#5623)
 * Facet evaluation is better at dealing with inherited errors 
diff --git a/R/aes.R b/R/aes.R
index 87870bccb1..4120657222 100644
--- a/R/aes.R
+++ b/R/aes.R
@@ -430,7 +430,7 @@ alternative_aes_extract_usage <- function(x) {
 }
 
 extract_target_is_likely_data <- function(x, data, env) {
-  if (!is.name(x[[2]])) {
+  if (!is.name(x[[2]]) || identical(x[[2]], quote(.data))) {
     return(FALSE)
   }