Abstract: Nighttime economic vitality is an important criterion for measuring the high-quality development of a region. For resource-based cities that are in a critical period of high-quality transformation, exploring their transformation quality from the perspective of nighttime economic vitality has important practical value. This article takes 22 resource-based cities in Northeast China (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces) as the research object, and the remaining 15 non resource-based cities as the control group. The development vitality of the nighttime economy in resource-based cities from 2000 to 2022 is calculated by the average light value. The Gini coefficient of light is selected to measure the balance of nighttime economic development in resource-based cities in the study area. Resource based cities are classified according to their functions to study the changes in Gini coefficient of light. The GM grey prediction model is used to predict the future changes in Gini coefficient of light in the study area. At the same time, a geographic detector is used to analyze the driving factors of nighttime economic equilibrium. Research has found that: (1) the average light value of resource-based cities has significantly increased, from 1.48 in 2000 to 8.24 in 2022, but still lags behind non resource based cities; (2) The Gini coefficient of lighting in resource-based cities has decreased from 0.27 in 2000 to 0.24 in 2022. After 2015, the average equilibrium of resource-based cities is higher than that of non resource based cities, and the nighttime economic equilibrium of comprehensive cities is higher than that of other functional cities; (3) From 2025 to 2035, the future nighttime economic equilibrium of resource-based cities will continue to be higher than that of non resource based cities; (4) The equilibrium development of nighttime economy in resource-based cities in Northeast China is mainly influenced by rainfall, total economic output, and urbanization level.