Approximately 7 million visitors visit the Eiffel Tower each year. That figure describes the tower’s usual annual capacity and makes it one of the world’s most visited paid monuments.
The tower opened for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a Paris world’s fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution. It attracted about 2 million visitors during that first exhibition, helping establish it as an international landmark rather than a temporary engineering attraction.
Annual totals vary with closures, renovations, travel conditions, and extraordinary events, so 7 million is an approximation rather than an unchanging yearly count. The tower has three visitor levels, restaurants, observation areas, elevators, and stairs; its summit is reached by elevator after visitors pass through the lower levels.
A common mix-up is confusing visitors to the Eiffel Tower with visitors to the Champ de Mars or the wider Paris region. The 7-million figure refers to people visiting the monument itself, not everyone viewing it from nearby streets and parks.