In spite of the similar moment/surface wave magnitude and similar near-vertical strike-slip faulting,the August 3,2014,Ludian,Yunnan,M_S6.5/M_W6.2 earthquake and the October 7,2014,Jinggu,Yunnan,M_S6.6/M_W6.1 earthquake caused sharply different disasters,the former having a fatality/missing up to about 700 and injury about 3,000,and the latter fatality 1 and injury about 300. To investigate the role of seismic radiated energy in such a difference,we analyzed 142 broadband(BB)vertical recordings of the Ludian earthquake and 138 BB vertical recordings of the Jinggu earthquake,with epicentral distance 6°~80°,and calculated the broadband cumulative body-wave magnitude m_Bc. It is shown that the m_Bc of the Ludian earthquake is about 0.3 higher than the Jinggu earthquake,indicating that radiated energy contributes significantly to the difference of the earthquake disasters.