Rea arrived at Kawasaki at the start of 2015 after spending his entire prior career on Honda machinery. He joined as teammate to Tom Sykes on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, replacing a Honda arrangement that had never delivered a championship despite years of competitive results. The move proved immediately transformative.
Prior to Rea's run, the record for successive WorldSBK titles was three, shared by Carl Fogarty and Troy Corser. Fogarty's four total titles across his career had stood as the all-time championship record since 1999.
In 2015, Rea dominated the season with 14 race victories and claimed the title convincingly in his debut Kawasaki season. He retained the crown in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, making him the first rider in any world championship motorcycle racing series to win six successive titles.
On 9 June 2018, Rea won the first race at Brno to take his 60th career WorldSBK victory, surpassing Carl Fogarty's long-standing record for all-time race wins in the championship. Rea went on to finish his WorldSBK career with 119 race victories in total, a record that stood well clear of any rival.
The titles from 2015 through 2020 were all secured on Kawasaki machinery, with the Ninja ZX-10R proving the benchmark superbike of that era. Rival manufacturers — Ducati, Honda, and BMW among them — mounted significant challenges across those six seasons without breaking the streak.
The six-title run gave Rea four more consecutive crowns than any previous WorldSBK champion had managed in a single unbroken sequence. It placed him alongside the sport's all-time great names despite WorldSBK occupying a different tier of global recognition from MotoGP.
Rea's dominance drew regular comparisons to the era of Carl Fogarty and Troy Bayliss but also attracted debate about the relative competitiveness of the grid during his peak years. Rivals including Chaz Davies, Tom Sykes, Álvaro Bautista, and Scott Redding each mounted title challenges at various points without ultimately denying Rea.
The streak ended in 2021 when Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed the title for Yamaha, defeating Rea in a closely contested season. Rea finished runner-up in 2021 and subsequently failed to add a seventh title, though he remained a frontrunner through his time at Kawasaki before joining Yamaha for his final competitive season in 2025.
Rea's six-title run is widely regarded as the defining achievement in WorldSBK history. He was appointed MBE in 2017 and OBE in 2022 for services to motorcycle racing, and Queen's University Belfast conferred an honorary doctorate on him in December 2019.
He announced retirement from full-time racing in August 2025 and returned to Honda in 2026 as a test rider, also competing in selected Endurance World Championship events. His record 119 race wins and six consecutive titles remain the benchmarks against which all future WorldSBK careers will be measured.