  The Galactic nova rate is intimately linked to our understanding of its
chemical enrichment and progenitor channels of Type Ia supernovae. Yet past
estimates have varied by more than an order of magnitude ($\approx10-300$
yr$^{-1}$) owing to limitations in both discovery methods as well as
assumptions regarding the Galactic dust distribution and extragalactic stellar
populations. Recent estimates utilizing synoptic near-infrared surveys have
begun to provide a glimpse of a consensus ($\approx25-50$ yr$^{-1}$); however,
a consistent estimate remains lacking. Here, we present the first all-sky
search for Galactic novae using 8 years of data from the NEOWISE mid-infrared
(MIR) survey. Operating at $3.4$ and $4.6$ $\mu$m where interstellar extinction
is negligible, the 6-month cadence NEOWISE dataset offers unique sensitivity to
discover slowly evolving novae across the entire Galaxy. Using a novel image
subtraction pipeline together with systematic selection criteria, we identify a
sample of 49 rapidly evolving MIR outbursts as candidate Galactic novae. While
27 of these sources are known novae, the remaining are previously missed nova
candidates discovered in this work. The unknown events are spatially clustered
along the densest and most heavily obscured regions of the Galaxy where
previous novae are severely underrepresented. We use simulations of the NEOWISE
survey strategy, the pipeline detection efficiency, and our criteria to derive
a Galactic nova rate of $47.9^{+3.1}_{-8.3}$ yr$^{-1}$. The discovery of these
exceptionally bright (yet overlooked) nova candidates confirm emerging
suggestions that optical surveys have been highly incomplete in searches for
Galactic novae, highlighting the potential for MIR searches in revealing the
demographics of Galactic stellar outbursts.
