For hundreds of users, I do not think this is a problem.
Sockets, which, as you know, have a permanent connection between the client and server, and both sides can start sending data at any time. Keeping them open is not a problem, like handling the load in terms of sent / second messages.
Socket.io can easily handle 1000 concurrent connections. But he will fail if he sends more than 8-10 thousand messages per second. You will encounter a load barrier before your outlets are exhausted. In most cases, processing more simultaneous users translates to a higher load. Therefore, do not worry about going down to sockets. Attempting to scale beyond this barrier will require more server resources.
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