real-time leaderboards, should we poll or use WebSockets

working on a new feature for a gaming platform and we need to implement real-time leaderboards. we've got a few ideas, but i'm stuck on the best approach for updating the scores. should we go with frequent polling from the client, or is it better to establish a persistent connection using WebSockets? i'm concerned about server load with WebSockets, but polling feels inefficient. what have you all found works best for similar use cases?