Abstract In this work, the reactive magnetron co-sputtering with oblique angle deposition (OAD) was used for preparing NiWO nanorod films. The influence of the sputtering power of Ni target on the microstructural, morphology, and chemical composition of the NiWO nanorod films were investigated. The grazing incident X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) pattern indicated that all prepared nanorod films show amorphous. From the field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), the prepared films are in the shape of the slant nanorods with well-separated nanocomlumnar. The effect of Ni-sputtering power on the diameter, length, and tilt angle of the prepared nanorods was discussed based on the shadowing effect and adatom energy. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that the surface roughness increased with increasing the Ni-sputtering power. In addition, the chemical state and composition of Ni, W, and O were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and discussed in this paper.