This article reports on the use of corona discharge to assist the vapor liquid solid growth of gallium oxide nanowires on silicon carbide substrates. The corona discharge increases the nucleation efficiency of the gold catalysts from 60% to 98% for 3C-SiC(1 1 1)/Si(1 1 1) Si-face substrates and from 15% to 80% for 6H-SiC(0001) substrates. The growth mode and crystal structure are not affected by the corona discharge. The gallium oxide growth starts with the formation of [ -3 1 1] oriented laterally overgrown terrace like nucleation zones with the gold catalyst particles floating on top. With evolving process time, the growth proceeds in the faster [0 1 0] direction, resulting in nanowires with an inclination angle of 51 degrees towards the substrate surface. On silicon and sapphire substrates, the nucleation and growth of gallium oxide nanowires are suppressed.