How to access PHP variables in JavaScript?

I am creating a game application. Once a User joins a Game they are a Player in that game. When an Admin starts a game, I would like to broadcast that event to all Players.

Following the docs, I can create a private channel in my event with return new PrivateChannel('game.'.$this->game->id);, but I don't know how to pass the game->id to my JavaScript listener gameId variable:

Echo.private(`game.${gameId}`)
    .listen('GameStarted', (e) => {
        console.log('Game started');
    });

I know what the game ID is and my backend scripts all know it, but I don't know how to tell the frontend scripts what it is.

I have considered three ways of doing this:

\1. Place a DB query statement at the front in my routes/web.php file that returns an array of game ID's the user is part of on every page request. e.g:

web.php

<?php 
$games = DB::table('games')
							->select(...)
							->toJson();
echo <script>var games = {{ $games }}</script>

//Creates the dashboard
Route::get('/dashboard', function () {...

This feels like it will create a lot of overhead by performing a DB call on every page request when the information may not be even be needed and I seriously doubt this is the right way to do it, but I'm happy to be told I'm wrong.

\2. Create routes in the routes/api.php file that returns only JSON data and that the JavaScript calls after the page loads. e.g.

dashboard.php

...
</main>	
	<script>
		var games;
		
		if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    		games= new XMLHttpRequest();
   			games.open("GET", '/api/games/getUserGames', false);
   		 	games.send(null);
		}
	</script>
</body>
</html>

This feels cleaner and would likely be better and faster from the user experience, but still puts a lot of calls into the DB.

\3. The way that sounds cleanest to me is to find all the users game ID's, player ID's, and any other ID's that might useful when the player logs in and then store those somewhere on the front end. I have no idea how to do this however.

I am using:

• Laravel 9.42.4
• Laravel Echo
• Soketi
• JQuery

Thanks in advance!