What's the difference between io.sockets.emit and broadcast?

io.sockets.emit will send to all the clients

socket.broadcast.emit will send the message to all the other clients except the newly created connection

This Socket.IO Wiki post will help everyone reading this question:

socket.broadcast.emit() behaves similar to io.sockets.emit, but instead of emitting to all connected sockets it will emit to all connected socket except the one it is being called on. So in this case the socket referenced by socket will not receive the event.

Scenario:1:- By the use of io.sockets.emit Detailed Diagram:-io.sockets.emit

Here Every Socket gets the Message including Initiator.

  // BY IO>SOCKETS>EMIT
   io.sockets.emit('MyChannelBroadcast',
               {
                 owner:"Anshu Ashish",
                 clientCount:clients,
                 message:"Welcome All"
               }
    );

Scenario:2:- By the use of socket.broadcast.emit Detailed Diagram:-socket.broadcast.emit

Here Every Sockets are getting Message Except One i.e Initiator.

    // BY SOCKET>BROADCAST>EMIT
   socket.broadcast.emit('BroadCastExceptMe',{data:"HAVE A NICE DAY"});

Conclusion:- Now it will totally depends our business requirement that which one will be preferable.