On 22 October, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, "Maya" was assigned to "Sentai"-5 with sister ships "Atago", "Takao" and "Chōkai" together with the battleships , and . At 05:33 on 23 October, the fleet was attacked in the Palawan Passage by a pair of US submarines, "Maya"s sister-ships "Atago" and "Takao" were torpedoed by the submarine . "Atago" was hit four times and sank in approximately 18 minutes, while "Takao" was severely damaged by two hits and forced to retire to Singapore. Twenty minutes later, submarine fired six torpedoes at "Maya", mistaking it for a battleship; "Maya" was struck by four torpedoes portside: one in the forward chain locker, another opposite No. 1 gun turret, a third in No. 7 boiler room and the last in the aft engine room. Powerful secondary explosions followed immediately, and by 06:00 "Maya" was dead in the water and listing heavily to port. She sank five minutes later, taking 336 officers and men to the bottom, including her captain ().