Problem with finding friends irl

I am currently enrolled in University and regarding studies everything has been going well and I'm genuinely happy with what I'm doing. The only issue is: How do I make friends?

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For more context. I've always been kind of a loner and I have always had issues connecting with others. Reason for this is being autistic and also just having generally non-normie interests in a small town. I do not drink nor smoke and I'm really just more on the "boring nerd side". Nothing wrong with that and it has never bothered me either. Even though with this being the case for me I did always kind of manage to stick with people in real life. Despite being bullied a lot I always had one friend that I met up with irl and a few people I could talk to when I was in school.

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Due to several mental health issues I've also been in therapy and managed to build a more robust self-esteem. I also managed to live more authentically and just improve as a person in general.

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I've also always been able to connect easily and quickly with people online. These friendships have lasted up to 10 years now, too. The only issue is that all my friends are over 10 hours of travel away from me so I've never managed to properly meet anyone in real life.

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Lastly, I also thought that University might be filled with more nerdy/social people in general.

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Because of all of this I genuinely assumed that I would turn into a vibrant social butterfly and would finally find my type of people in real life too!

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I was utterly wrong with this assumption and have not managed to find anyone to hang out with or talk to consistently and it has been 4 semesters.

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To clarify I do not think my interest are super niche at all either. I like Monster Hunter, Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest to name a few. I am also really into drawing and writing. I love various manga and anime too and I am absolutely able to be interested in about anything even if it's not within my core interests. I carry Keychains and pins around with me that showcase my interests and when I do manage to talk to people I do notice that they think I am nice but they do not share any of my interests at all and never talk about themselves (even though I am asking!) It's that type of thing where you notice that you're the only one interested in some type of connection. I also usually talk about my main interest just being gaming but for some reason nobody games ?? I never considered video games to be such an abstract construct still. I always thought gaming became more mainstream.

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I have also tried to take initiative besides just talking to people.

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Been to a friend making event that made me feel like a naive child for assuming it would consist of us all being kind to eachother and genuinely being interested in making friends but I was kind of just. Not noticed and when I went to talk to people they did not show any type of interest in what I had to say or asked any question.

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I also have downloaded bumble friends but that has just made me realise I feel like I'm an animal trying to play human and that obviously does make it immensely difficult to even start talking to anyone. I also kind of get freaked out looking at all these strangers.

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If you've made it this far thank you for reading :,)

Idk if there's any advice for my situation and its okay if there isn't. I just needed to get it all off my chest.