The best simulation games like Arma 3 are Arma Reforger, Squad and Hell Let Loose. Below are 9, each with the reason it is here — and, at the end, what filtering to simulation costs you.
Filtering to simulation means you want a system to run or a routine to inhabit. It is the right filter when what you liked was being somewhere rather than beating something.
What you get: A game that does not need you to be good at it, and that rewards paying attention over reacting quickly.
What made Arma 3 worth playing in the first place is covered on the full list. This page is the simulation part of that answer, and only the simulation part.
The newer engine, smaller in scope, and far easier to get into.
The same seriousness with a shorter on-ramp and required teamwork.
WWII, fifty a side, and the same emphasis on communication.
Tactical shooting stripped to planning and patience.
Close-quarters tactical work with real consequences.
The arcade end of the same fantasy, and free.
If the simulation itself is what you enjoy, from the cockpit.
Ballistics and gear fear taken to their extreme.
For the mission-editor half — modding is where Arma players end up.
Urgency. Simulations are deliberately slow, and the ones with no fail state give you nothing to push against.
The full list is on games like Arma 3 — 9 picks, no genre filter.
Arma Reforger. The newer engine, smaller in scope, and far easier to get into.
No. Arma 3 released on the PC & Modern Multi-Platform, but a recommendation is only useful if you can play it, so the picks above span platforms and eras. What they share is the genre and the reason.
A simulation with no fail state and no time pressure. The label describes how it feels to play rather than what genre it is in.
No — one is about running a system well, the other about inhabiting a routine. Recommending across that line is where most simulation recommendations go wrong.
By hand. Each pick was written for the full Arma 3 list first, on what the game actually does, and this page is the part of that list that is simulation — never a genre tag lookup, which is how "best racing games like Super Mario 64" used to be a page on this site.
Or read the simulation guide for where to start in the genre generally.