Looking for a realistic survival game...

The Long Dark really is the best.
I have yet to find another that even comes close.

1)Subnautica
2)Dont starve + dlcs + dont starve together
3)Stranded deep

The Long Dark is pretty great, and I would also recommend Subnautica.

subnautica is absolutely 11/10 unless you're afraid of open, deep water.
if you love crafting more than your social life check out factorio (demo available). it's not first person but you'll craft like a madman.

7 days to die is a piece of shit with pathetic devs. yet i played it forever to get the achievements done. still don't have all of them. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
edit: make sure to use valmod. it makes the game SO much better with small changes.

You could try The Hobo Simulator that it's really cheap atm.

I was also going to suggest The Long Dark. Right as I saw the title. Yes, it is THAT good that I instantly thought of it.
Secondly, I was gonna suggest Rust, a game that stole my heart as well at some point, but yeah, no single player... Also, it has no other threats other than other players, hence why I abandoned it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/299740/Miscreated/

NEO SCAVENGER

+1 on the Long Dark.
It's also on sale now which makes it an easier buy.

I would suggest Ark:Survival Evolved, as long as you don't have an issue with realism and dinosaurs =p
Current sale is 67% off.

This game may interest you https://store.steampowered.com/app/513710/agecheck

Try Robinson's Requiem and Deus (RR2) https://www.gog.com/game/robinsons_requiem_collection
They're old but have more survival than you can handle, lol.

I haven't played many survival games, but Metro 2033 and Metro Redux is the best ones I've played that have "survival" tag in them.

Permadeath is good but it can be abused by several ways, like 100 people going agaisnt 1 and this poor souls has no other option x=)

So far this one was the absolute most realistic one for me, but it is kinda expensive if you want to get committed. :3

Subnautica is surprisingly polished for a game that escaped Early Access. It has a beautiful alienesque soundtrack (that is included for free in the game files, much to my surprise as they could easily charge for that quality!), and runs on a sci-fi and underwater theme, complete with all the natural atmosphere and dread it comes with. I cannot recommend that game enough.

The Long Dark is also pretty cool but is a bit more on the harsher side. Sustainability is the end boss, with resources gradually dwindling and forcing you to migrate from whatever established routine and shelter you have. Widllife poses a substantial threat but you have measures to fight little wars of attrition against them. You need to pick your gear carefully because hunted food will go off quicker, liquid is heavy but vital, all the tools you may need all gradually add weight and burden to you, and you never know if even a straight and direct task you set yourself will turn into a saga of several days after you lose your orientation or get diverted due to obstacles. It was nice to find a game that also treated wind exposure as a major element, and it adds a whole new dimension when picking your way across the cold remains of a world past a major catastrophe. Weigh your risks, and don't push too hard. The little "Oh shit..." moments when you realise a blizzard started to roll in, and your short stretch through the open back to your chosen shelter suddenly becomes a major obstacle that you have to grapple with. Maybe I'm biased because I played this during the winter for deliberate immersion, and always loved listening to rain/storms/etc from under shelter or from indoors. The fierce windy rattle of a storm that goes on for several days was pleasant for me, if daunting for my character. Having to decide whether to risk leaving to find food during it, or try to wait it out by sleeping as much as I could to suspend digestive functions and only truly eat before leaving? Tricky. Having to go outside to the directly adjacent husk of a shed to go melt snow for something to drink while certain I thought there was nearby movement was worrisome. Deciding what you want to burn to ensure the fire even starts burning in full (let alone stay lit in the bad weather) is a nice touch too. Or deliberately waiting for a wolf to kill a rabbit before you try shooting it with your precious little ammo, to net yourself two lots of pelts without expending energy, or risking taking leftovers from a frozen-solid half eaten deer, both in terms of gut issues and exposure while you thaw the corpse enough to hack it up. Your skills do improve over time but only in tiny increments, and only serve to boost small percentiles (like whether you can skin something a bit quicker to save precious minutes from a journey).

Ah man, I'm gonna have to play it again once the weather gets cold again. I lost my second file. First one I uh, well I decided to try challenge a bear while using a cargo container as shelter. Yeah. Second one was heading up towards a whole 100 days of survival but then I lost it. I can't even remember what happened...

I suppose there is also non-FPS survival games with a bit of humor and some learning curve, like RImworld :3c

Subnautica is really great, it's not "real" because you are in a planet in space with alien life forms, but well everything is realistic despite that.

have you tried....eeee.... real life ?

Raft is pretty realistic and has a fairly unique mechanic. Also, there are roughly a zillion videos on YouTube about it, if you want to do some research on it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/648800/Raft

I can recommend The Long Dark:)

The Long Dark is a great game, and they're still adding great updates. I've yet to play the latest update which overhauls cooking, but it def looks more interesting now.

The only other recommendation I could make is Project Zomboid. Yes, it is a zombie survival game, but... You can completely disable zombies in settings. Settings also allow you to change almost every aspect of the game, from how long power and water will run, to how long the world has been in it's apocalyptic state, to loot rarity, and so on. It has a very good building system, along with cooking, farming, foraging, trapping and so on. It also has seasons, temperature, illness and more. Then ofc, the best part is how modable the game is. There are plenty of mods available as is, but it's also really easy to make your own if you have any interest in that. Me personally, I make my own (Mostly because I find others make bad art that doesn't blend with the game, or they create overly complex systems). I've added hundreds of items to the game, expanded on cooking, crafting, foraging and more. The only thing left I need to do is expand on farming as it's limited to 7 crops right now.

Anyway, back to the game... You can play solo, or with friends, or in large servers with tons of players. However, it lacks a campaign of any sort. The game boils down to the basic principle, survival. The game also lacks NPC's, and hunting, so without zombies, the world will feel very empty and lonely. Also, the game has been in Early Access for ages, but it's one of those EA titles that I don't get annoyed by because they haven't abandoned it, they actually do still add to the game. So... I'd say at least watch some youtube vids for it, and see what you think, and if you think you could enjoy it without the zombies.

I know, you say no zombies but did you play project zomboid? If forget about zombies, this one become(for me) on of the most realistic survival games i ever played.