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The author of this topic has marked a post as the answer to their question.
ESO PVP/Cyrodiil = performance is really bad, super buggy and abandoned by devs to the point whole pvp community feels hated by the devs, not exaggerating even. To the point pvp is "dead content" since so many quit and everyone last left only fights against the same few people they know by name. Same on endgame pve raid scene, it has shriveled down to few active groups anymore. Most casual player base plays ESO fully solo as "Skyrim Lite". 
GW2 PVP/World vs World = Performance (for me in 2k resolution with ALL settings on max/highest, even character models on Highest is perfect. Latency is 37ms in average (so skills work super smooth, in ESO was jumping between 100-400ms like their server was located in the moon, even both are on EU, since i'm EU player on EU server) is perfect. It has action 24/7, even during 3-4am my time, so night times even got people to pvp with (in ESO did not, it was dead most times of day for pvp). So when i now play GW2, i realize i spend much of my time in WvW and addicted to the fun there. 
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In GW2 you have access to a limited crafting material stash even as a free2play player, but you can pay gems (real money currency that can also be bought with ingame currency) to permanently increase the size of that crafting material stash. Also, GW2 has no subscription model whatsoever
That's the main reason why I decided to never even touch ESO, since I can't really think living without such a stash while also not accepting to ever buy a subscription just for a single game. That doesn't mean that ESO doesn't have any Pros, it's just that that's how far I researched until I decided to not bother with it anymore.
https://mmo-population.com
It is probably difficult to guess which one he means, since there GW2 has a higher daily player count while ESO has a higher total player base. If you on the other hand take this website
https://mmostats.com/game/guild-wars-2
https://mmostats.com/game/the-elder-scrolls-online
It even looks like GW2 is far ahead in both, daily player and playerbase.
But since it is ah punch we are talking about all websites you might possible find are obviously fake and only the Steam numbers are the true numbers and the fact that GW2 only came to Steam 10 years after its initial launch while ESO was on Steam since its release obviously doesn't count
https://steamdb.info/app/306130/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/1284210/charts/
Which show roughly 3-4k concurrent players as peaks per day (a btw terrible metric in my eyes, I very much prefer daily players, but sadly Steam doesn't offer these) while ESO has around 20k. Which from his perspective simply means that ESO is 10 times bigger than GW2 as non Steam players are obviously similarly weighted as Steam players, since it doesn't matter when a game gets released on Steam and all websites other than Steam offer fake numbers anyways.
You can play core game of GW2 for free and there's some sort of free option for ESO too, so why not try both of them out yourself?
GW2: Free trial to level 80, with the entire base game and 8 of the 9 classes available to explore. There are some restrictions of course, but none of them game-breaking. Here's a link to a handy table:
https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230165307-Guild-Wars-2-Account-Types-Free-Core-HoT-PoF
ESO: Frequent, and dramatic, discounts, but no free trial. There are occasional free weekends.
I have downloaded the game during one such free weekend, and played for a couple hours. I didn't feel like logging in the next day, so I just uninstalled it. In other words, I've spent more time installing it than actually playing!
The problem I have with this is that I might be in a minority. It is possible that, for most players, a free weekend may not be enough time to make a decision on whether the game is worth it for them.
And "C'mon, it's less than 10 bucks, it sure is worth that price" is not a good argument. If you only play for a couple sessions and never feel like coming back to it again, even 5 bucks is too much money, IMO.
There's another feature of ESO that people complain about: The unlimited crafting supplies storage. It's only available to subscribers.
In GW2 crafting mats storage is limited to stacks of 250 (in your account-wide bank) unless you buy an upgrade in the gem store, but at least it's available to all players, including F2P.
Also worth mentioning that the sub comes with other benefits though, like currency for the store and access to all content.
And a more casual player might not even care about the crafting bag.
Regarding the crafting storage: ESO has an item salvaging feature, just like GW2 does. I just don't remember what it's called. All the low-level gear you break down as you level produces crafting materials, which you may not want to throw away. With an unlimited material storage you don't need to worry! Even if you end up selling most of them :)
Regarding other benefits: If you are the type of player who is willing and able to pay a subscription, ESO is probably the best value for money currently on the market! That's why it's so popular. However if you have no income, or an irregular income, spending money on a monthly subscription to a single video game feels frivolous (unless you absolutely love it and play for several hours a day guaranteed - this might work out cheaper than a bar/coffee shop/cinema).
FYI: The poster who brought player numbers up in this thread is a dedicated ESO tribalist posting pretty much only about the player numbers on steam + some other hate comments for over a year now. He is not a based and reliable source if you want to make any decisions. View his other posts to verify this yourself if you want.
Instead of writing an essay myself (as I am playing and enjoying both games for different reasons), I refer to a pretty decent video about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9w-Z1SU_OM
Edit: The video is two years old, so some info may be a bit a outdated. But the general gist stays the same.
So maps feel empty and no one seems to do group content even if you ask for days if anyone wanna do anything. People just afk in their house instances and/or do crafting writs and logout. For new players it has plenty story content tho obviously. Old players just mostly get frustrated and disappear, or play only anymore because some friend also still plays. You know the feeling when you only play when some dear friend still plays and you'd feel bad leaving them alone? My last year was like that. Played for 5 years. So i know ESO rather well.
Not done much raids yet in GW2, but seen people do and those seem fun enough. :) And story content is fun, and plenty of it for a new player. And old players have been super helpful, and always wanting to do actual group content, people have whispered me directly if i want to do some group content with them or need help with anything. Oh god, that's been healing my soul after ESO. Imagine people wanting to do group stuff in their MMO? Been so much fun. ^^
So the social and group aspect of playing (meta events and world bosses and dungeons and whatnot) i feel people actually wanna do things. This feels really important for me. Even tho anyone (even i) can have days when just wanna chill and do overland stuff solo.
The maps are bigger than in ESO imo and more places to actually feel like exploring. And meets players in middle of nowhere events. It just feels good. I did not expect game this old to be so active. I see way more people in GW2 doing things than i ever saw in ESO, even by "numbers" in many sources would expect the other way around, but truth with own eyes does not lie. GW2 has that certain something. Kind, active and wholesome community as is the game itself. And special. I love GW2. <3
GW2 has won me over by far clearly. These are matters of opinions, so if someone disagrees, you got the right to do so. And whatever the case, play you either of the game, i wish you all dear forum friends a great and fun gaming weekend!
Thanks for your post :)
Aww thanks for for feedback! ^^
And well, one "big" difference that notices after ESO, is that in GW2 after you unlock bar swap between weapons (some classes have a bit different mechanics with this btw), it is not same as in ESO where can skill/swap/skill/swap/skill etc with light attack weave in between constantly, but bar swap is (for most classes) while IN COMBAT only every 10 seconds.
So it's, like more tactical, so uses "opener"/utility weapon to use certain skills, then to the "main weapon" where you do your rotation (you also have utility skills that are big part of your dmg/utility/healing/group boons) and then class "gimmick" for each class on F1-F5 buttons (depends how and how many from classes), those can keybind to other keys obviously if in bad place, like for me, got smol girl hands not smoothly reaching those keys without having to let go of movement keys then (that might be not good for survival sometimes, since GW2 combat can sometimes be Dark souls punishing if some boss then bonks you if not move out from the red danger zone fast enough).
So Elementalist for example switches elemental attunements (Fire, Water etc) and not weapon bars all the time in combat, so the system is a bit different, but very fun and satisfying to learn.
But, wanted to mention that, since for some ex-ESO player not having constant bar swap in combat can be a con and not a pro type of thing if they are used to the swap & weave.
Personally i got used to it fast and now like it a lot, even with that 10 seconds between swaps in combat.. there can be LOT keys to press for many of the classes, so high skill ceiling to get maximum out of your each classes, but easy to do and learn "well enough", but can clearly feel personal progress while playing when gets better with how GW2 works. :) It has similarities, but differences.
And each class gets different skills from same weapons, so Guardian and Mesmer for example have different skills from using a Staff, so different spells/skills with different functions and different animations for each class with same weapon. In ESO all weapon skills were the same for all classes.
So plenty cool and fun combos to try with weapons and so on. In ESO there was lots of different sets, in GW2 more like different weapons/combos of them, like Scepter + Focus or Warhorn in other hand and Staff on other bar, or double daggers, or double Pistols, Or Sword main hand and Pistol on other hand, or Rifle for ranged, then melee weapons on other bar when things go up close and personal, things like that, and skills change depending on class. :) It's cool to try out stuff.
And then you modify build with specializations (not sets), where select different passive/active effect modifiers (or things like if you dodge roll in combat, you get a heal, for example), and stats from gear that can swap, so can build towards more Power damage or Condi damage, or something between or suppor/healer type of stats, and then relic bonus. That can act as a "mini proc-set" (eso reference), that can give like increased time for Swiftness of give barrier, or increase healing done on squad members and so on.) So not need hundreds of different sets, it's a bit different system. Took me a couple weeks to realize how cool it is, would be hard to go back to the "traditional" way of doing it mmo's. :D
And in starting areas (10yr old) some graphical assets can look a bit dated, but same was in ESO, when compared some base game vanilla zones towns graphic assets and models (and NPC characters outfits and looks) to the DLC areas like Summerset, the difference was big. So i guess that can be a negative to some. But any game has starter zones look outdated already and latest zones look like 3x better with more detailed graphic assets and color palette.
So yeah, the assets clearly improved as time went on, as it happens with most mmo games. And for me the game looks absolutely beautiful in 2k. My characters look really cute and detailed and the particle effect gear and weapons look awesome.
There, a bit more rambling about the differences, and a bit of similarities. :)
In that case welcome to Tyria!
Don't be afraid to ask in chat if you need any help. There will probably be people around happy to help you out.