Ask HN: What are your thoughts on creating popular software?

How do you create popular software projects, either open source projects or actual software products like Android applications that people really use?

I am sure there are a lot of developers that read ycombinator and reddit and have development experience but for whatever reason haven't created a popular software tool by themselves. Maybe they aren't motivated enough to do so? Or maybe they don't want to.

I am always playing around with various technology but I have never known what drives the motivation or skill to create something with thousands or millions of users. For example, Minecraft is a great example of a lone project where the developer took it to the next level?

What are your thoughts on this? Is it focusing on one particular project for months or years? And not getting distracted with something else?