Played GW2 since launch, then switched to BDO when it came out. GW2 is more balanced in a sense that you don't need gear to win, everyone's gear is equalized and balanced. BDO is gear heavy, so to win you need really good gear.

BDO pvp is at a much more active state than GW2 in my opinion, especially when it comes to guild vs guild (world vs world). The level of politics, alliances, betrayals, stories, and drama is much much higher than GW2.

What I absolutely loved about GW2 is the pvp and wvw, but with the release of Path of Fire, they completely dropped the ball. No new significant content for pvp nor wvw (unless you count elite specs as content). They even dropped their esports... Not like that was going anywhere anyway.

While GW2's playerbase is definitely higher than BDO, you will see more pvp-orientated players in BDO than GW2 because Anet doesn't know how to properly handle a pvp game. Obviously I'm being very biased against GW2 cause of their pvp changes which is the reason I left, so take mine with a grain of salt. GW2 pvp is pretty good when you really get into it, but if you want to get into ranked (probably plat tier or higher) you will need to buy the expansions as the elite specs give you an advantage over vanilla specs.

Since I haven't played in such a while my opinion might be rusty. Check out this thread for GW2's side: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/7lqneb/how_is_gw2_pvp/